Hacking and Hackers:
These days people have more concerns over their privacy and data in comparison to some years ago. This can be explained with a fact where advocacy for fair data use and data protection are called upon continuously by users accessing services of tech giants. It is said, "Data is the new oil". There have been instances where companies have started tracking their users' behavior and the way of their customers incorporating with their company and their competitors. Having reach to a person's data can these days create numerous opportunities to excel in this competitive business retrospective. This is the reason why concerns over data security have been continuously raised by people connected in the web.
To make data more accessible, people have started looking for ways to hack into someone's social media account. It has been a trend for people to share every small data about their private and social life in these platforms. This trend has made both white and black hat hackers to easily steal your data if you fall into the complexities created by them. Use of online services is increasing, however, the knowledge to remain safe in this digital world is somewhere lacking. Getting access to someone's device is really easy if the person on the other side is not concerned over his action to traps led by a hacker.
In this blog post, I will try my best to list all possible ways of hacking into someone's device and ways to remain safe from those attacks.
Hacking Methodologies:
1) Pharming Attack:
It sounds similar to a familiar word 'farming'. Pharming in hacking refers to updating of hosts file into a computer. For those, who heard hosts file for the first time, they can browse into the following location in their Windows PC, C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. Many a time, we might have seen some web address like 100.11.11.12. It seems a bit tough for people to remember these numeric IP addresses and this is why DNS servers are used to convert alphabetic website names into the respective numeric IDs.
The pharming technique relies on targeting a webpage specifically meant for collecting credentials of someone's account by changing hosts file. So, in this case, even if you correctly type www.xyz.com, you will be redirected to www.xyc.com, a webpage which will have all elements similar to the webpage you were trying access to as records in hosts file are modified to point to a phishing webpage. Looking at the familiarity of the webpage, an individual will enter their credentials to the phishing site and now their data is in the hand of a hacker.
It is important for everyone to use a secure browser which identifies the illegible action and notifies about any suspicious activity going around. In addition, it is always beneficial to check the address bar to confirm the legibility of the web page.
2) Man-in-the-middle attack:
Browsers provide you with the required data by sending data packets from your device to servers in between. The attack relies on intercepting data you transmit through your device. On account of greed and money savings, people connect to open wifi networks around them. Using tools like Burp Suite and Ettercap, it is easy for the hacker in between to scan data packets before it is passed away from their servers.
Browsers provide you with the required data by sending data packets from your device to servers in between. The attack relies on intercepting data you transmit through your device. On account of greed and money savings, people connect to open wifi networks around them. Using tools like Burp Suite and Ettercap, it is easy for the hacker in between to scan data packets before it is passed away from their servers.
One way of protecting yourself from these attacks is to check https padlock on the top left of your browser. However, to surpass secure connections there are methods to provide you a genuine version of the webpage with http unsecured protocol and hackers generally provide you with the same version to interpret your data. To make yourself secure, never, enter your data into these unsafe web pages. Not all websites provide https version of their web pages and data you enter into these web pages can be easily read. To protect yourself from these attacks never use the same password for all the online accounts you have been using.
3) Use of Trojan and Keylogger:
Adapting numerous security checklists can even lead you to a compromised device if you fall prey to some cool social engineering skills. Collecting all the data you enter through a physical keyboard is really easy using a keylogger. Keylogger runs in the background of a program not visible to the target user and silently collects all the keystrokes and sends them to the hacker through your network.
Adapting numerous security checklists can even lead you to a compromised device if you fall prey to some cool social engineering skills. Collecting all the data you enter through a physical keyboard is really easy using a keylogger. Keylogger runs in the background of a program not visible to the target user and silently collects all the keystrokes and sends them to the hacker through your network.
The easiest way to provide your device with keylogger is to bundle them with a trojan. Looking at the high cost associated with premium software, people have started looking for crack versions of those softwares. This behavior of users has made easy for the hackers to plant a trojan along with the crack file and notify you to turn off your antivirus program and create an exception for the trojan to let trojan run independently and collect and send your data to hacker's server. The Trojans can also be planted using an offline mode who has access to your device.
To remain safe from these attacks, never, use a compromised software and never let your device into the hands of the person (like me) who can make use of the golden opportunity to eye into your data letting you dive into the assumption of your data being safe.
4) Whaling Attack/Spear Phishing:
To make the modus operandi more clear, I would like to quote to a recent whaling attack where hackers impersonated being, CEO of Tecnimont SpA to rob a hefty amount from its Indian chain. Having rigorous research and planning, hackers can plan a spear-phishing attack by using malware and rootkits to infiltrate the network and send e-mails to employees of an organization from an account similar to a senior most official in that organization. To make the communication more genuine, hackers make use of artificial intelligence to capture emotions, expressions, and images of the person to be impersonated and plant those unique data to create conference calls where the target believes he is talking to his senior and unknowingly leaks private data to the hacker.
To make the modus operandi more clear, I would like to quote to a recent whaling attack where hackers impersonated being, CEO of Tecnimont SpA to rob a hefty amount from its Indian chain. Having rigorous research and planning, hackers can plan a spear-phishing attack by using malware and rootkits to infiltrate the network and send e-mails to employees of an organization from an account similar to a senior most official in that organization. To make the communication more genuine, hackers make use of artificial intelligence to capture emotions, expressions, and images of the person to be impersonated and plant those unique data to create conference calls where the target believes he is talking to his senior and unknowingly leaks private data to the hacker.
Figuring out these attacks is really hard if the victim does not make use of his intelligence to look at every small detail of the e-mail and calls he receives. One major check is to establish a multi-step verification process for all requests for sensitive data and educating individuals to identify phishing emails.
5) The flaw in Same Origin Policy (SOP):
SOP is a security measure that a browser should follow to restrict a webpage to load code that is not part of their own. How many times have you wondered to have redirected to a new tab or a window while clicking some element in a webpage? This action lets the hacker to run a webpage simultaneously in your browser with other social media accounts you have been using. This can be done by an extension deceptively installed into your browser by the hacker or through any hidden ads on the webpage. Once the user is forced to navigate to our website, it is a child's play to send them some malicious code, and then access other sites that are open in their browser. Older versions of the famous browsers in use and most in-built android browsers have this flaw unattended. Using Metasploit and BeEF, hackers can get hold of your data in case you get into their trap.
SOP is a security measure that a browser should follow to restrict a webpage to load code that is not part of their own. How many times have you wondered to have redirected to a new tab or a window while clicking some element in a webpage? This action lets the hacker to run a webpage simultaneously in your browser with other social media accounts you have been using. This can be done by an extension deceptively installed into your browser by the hacker or through any hidden ads on the webpage. Once the user is forced to navigate to our website, it is a child's play to send them some malicious code, and then access other sites that are open in their browser. Older versions of the famous browsers in use and most in-built android browsers have this flaw unattended. Using Metasploit and BeEF, hackers can get hold of your data in case you get into their trap.
To remain safe from these attacks, using a secure browser and keeping an eye on the actions made by the web pages on your tabs is highly recommended.
6) Self Cross Site Scripting:
It refers to giving hacker, the permission to manipulate your account by running malicious Javascript in your browser console. This does not directly give the credentials to the hacker. However, gives him full permission to access the pages you visit and make actions like sharing contents, sending messages, commenting etc. on your behalf. This is the easiest trick adopted by any hacker to pass the security measures you have adopted by promising you a reward to run the codes given by them in your browser console. It is even comedic when people are fooled into by hackers to let them hack someone else's account and at the end get their own account hacked just due to lack of knowledge, that these things even exist.
It refers to giving hacker, the permission to manipulate your account by running malicious Javascript in your browser console. This does not directly give the credentials to the hacker. However, gives him full permission to access the pages you visit and make actions like sharing contents, sending messages, commenting etc. on your behalf. This is the easiest trick adopted by any hacker to pass the security measures you have adopted by promising you a reward to run the codes given by them in your browser console. It is even comedic when people are fooled into by hackers to let them hack someone else's account and at the end get their own account hacked just due to lack of knowledge, that these things even exist.
To remain safe from this attack, never, run a code which you cannot interpret and have no knowledge of what it can perform.
7) Browser Hooking and Gaining Remote Access:
One of the most used and easiest techniques followed by a hacker is hooking your browser by making you click into specially prepared Javascript link. How a hacker sends the link to you remains in his matter of concern. Specifically, a hacker embeds the code into a link specifically talking about beauty products or any topic interested to a girl if it is a female victim whose account needs to be compromised. For, boys the hackers generally embed code into a link following towards an adult content. The mode could be anything but the result is to make you click those links. Once the browser is hooked, the hacker can either send you a legitimate dialog box (Using BeEF) calling your session being ended or access the file containing hashed password in the browser and then decrypting them using a relevant tool such as one from Elcomsoft.
One of the most used and easiest techniques followed by a hacker is hooking your browser by making you click into specially prepared Javascript link. How a hacker sends the link to you remains in his matter of concern. Specifically, a hacker embeds the code into a link specifically talking about beauty products or any topic interested to a girl if it is a female victim whose account needs to be compromised. For, boys the hackers generally embed code into a link following towards an adult content. The mode could be anything but the result is to make you click those links. Once the browser is hooked, the hacker can either send you a legitimate dialog box (Using BeEF) calling your session being ended or access the file containing hashed password in the browser and then decrypting them using a relevant tool such as one from Elcomsoft.
To remain safe from this attack use a secure browser and never click on links whose genuinity is not confirmed and can lead to your data being compromised.
The list to hacking techniques is enormous and each hacker uses his own technique to get into your device. Some other techniques are specifically not meant for novice and requires more effort and the same is not listed in this post. However, you are free to contact me using the contact form to help you assist with other tools.
Are you looking for a free scan on whether your device is compromised, feel free to leave your queries on comment box or through contact form?
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