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A Guide to How Hackers Hack

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You have surely heard of hackers, but do you really know how they work? Hackers are well known for being bad guys, though there are certainly good hackers out there too. Here’s a brief guide to help you understand how a hacker can hack:

Directions for Hacking are Easy to Come By

Hackers don’t have to look far for help, especially if they don’t know much about hacking. First is a well-known website known as Kali Linux. It has a ton of tools available for hackers, and the site features many links to other hacking resources. Of course, people who want to hack often go to YouTube, and there are more than 300,000 videos there that teach people how to hack. There are also thousands of other websites out there with easy to follow hacking instructions, and you can find them in about a minute.

Software is Easy to Find, too

Directions for hacking is one part of it, but there is also software available that makes the job of hacking quite easy. Here are some of the options available:

  • Cain & Able – This tool helps a hacker intercept traffic on a network, and then can use that information to get passwords, which helps them get into accounts. More than 400,000 people have downloaded this software.
  • Burp Suite – Hackers use this tool to map out the structure and pages of a website, and then they use the information to attack the site.
  • John the Ripper – People use this tool for dictionary attacks. Basically, it takes text strings, encrypts them, and then uses the information for an attack.
  • Angry IP Scanner – This is a free tool that allows the user to scan a network for open ports. Once they find one, they can easily gain access.

Hackers Also Use Hardware

In addition to downloading software for hacking, it’s also possible for hackers to use hardware. One is called Wi-Fi Pineapple, which is a small, portable object that the hacker can use with any hotspot. They use it to find a laptop that is searching for an access point. Once the Pineapple sees an open connection, the hacker can read texts, emails, and see what websites you are viewing.

Protect Yourself from Hacks

There are many things that you can do to protect yourself from hackers. First, make sure you are using an encrypted website, one with HTTPS instead of HTTP in the address. Also, consider using a VPN when browsing. This encrypts your data so a hacker cannot read it. There’s a ton more to do. Go here: https://safr.me/blog/

ROBERT SICILIANO CSP, is a #1 Best Selling Amazon author, CEO of CreditParent.com, the architect of the CSI Protection certification; a Cyber Social and Identity Protection security awareness training program.

Cheating Website hacked hard

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Bad guys hacked bad guys. Hmmm, whose side should we take?

2DAshleymadison.com got hacked. This site helps and suggests married people cheat. The hack threatens millions of users, potentially revealing their credit card information, addresses, real names, pictures and content of their chat logs.

This dating site has 37 million users and is owned by Avid Life Media. Their other sites, Established Men and Cougar Life, were also hacked.

The hackers responsible call themselves The Impact Team. They object strongly to Ashleymadison.com and had threatened to release all the hacked data unless the site closed down.

The Impact Team is especially unnerved over the site’s Full Delete service that supposedly wipes clean a customer’s profile and everything associated for $19. The Impact Team alleges that Ashleymadison.com took the money but did not delete, retaining clients’ credit card information, names and addresses.

The site denies the claims and is offering the deletion service for free. It’s also fighting to get the millions of personal data pieces removed from cyber space. If it’s already been exposed… too late.

Sounds like some spuses are going to get the frying pan for sure.

The Hacking Team might sell all this personal data for a lot of dough, but that’s a rumor. Either way, the customers are surely shaking in their boots.

A similar thing happened with another site called Adult Friend Finder. Recently, the sex life of its nearly four million users was revealed—purchased underground for $16,800.

What do these recent hacking incidents teach us? Not to cheat? Well, maybe, but more so that you risk a lot by putting your identity and other sensitive information online. Online services cannot guarantee protection from hackers. Maybe Ashleymadison.com’s customers should have used a virtual credit card number, but that wouldn’t have kept other sensitive information concealed.

Had this site used encryption, the hackers would have seen nothing but a bunch of garbled characters: zero value. But most sites don’t use encryption. And when they do, it’s often crackable.

Some sites, like Ashley Madison, have a privacy flaw: If someone knows your e-mail, they can find out if you’re registered with the site because its password reset requires only the e-mail.

If you don’t want anyone to know you have an account with a site, then create an e-mail just for that site. But that’s only one small thing you can do. Your private information may still get hacked into and revealed to the world.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.