Internet hackers

Internet hacking basically means accessing a secure computer system by disabling or bypassing the security in place for that system. In today’s world where each and everyone, from young to old, is using the internet on a regular basis with social networking becoming a fast and the easiest way to communicate and stay in touch with people all around the globe, internet is slowly becoming a part of life.

Gang of hackers

It is not just the source to unending information and knowledge any more, it is more than that. With people using and sharing personal information on internet, some people use hacking as a smart and efficient way to fool people and have them trapped. Hacking is essentially done on e-mail accounts, social networking profiles or sometimes into one personal computer using another. But in recent times, it is seen that a gang of hackers hacking into websites and web pages without the consent of the owners. Hacking is sometimes done to steal or destroy data or use the system to hide the tracks of the hackers as they hack into many different systems.

Although hacking is not a crime or an offence but using it in an illegal way, is considered illegal. People have developed a pre-conceived notion that all hacker are criminals, which is not true. Hackers are generally quite intelligent people who use their knowledge and expertise in a constructive manner to help organizations, companies or even governments to safely secure their documents. But there are always exceptions and thus there are some people who use their talent and ability in a wrong manner which eventually lands them into trouble and make them a criminal in eyes of the law.

Two kinds of hackers

There are mainly two kinds of hackers; White hat hackers and Black hat hackers. White hat hackers are those who hack or break security for non miscellaneous reasons like perhaps to check the strength of their computer security while working on making computer security softwares. Whereas Black hat hackers are the people who deliberately violate computer security law for personal gain or interest.

Hacking is done on different levels and for different gains. Network hacking is done basically to gather information about the domain by using specialized tools like Telnet, Nslook Up, Ping etc. Password hacking is another very common and widely use hacking. It is the process of recovering secret passwords from data that has been stolen or transmitted by a computer system. The most common approach is to keep guessing but there other techniques which guarantee an easy hacking like Hashing, default password and Phishing.

Phishing

Phishing is one of the most commonly used techniques while hacking. Using this technique, the attacker or the hacker can not only get to know the password of the account of the person, but can easily get access to the victim’s bank accounts and other important accounts.

In this technique, the attacker uses a fake ID and creates a fake email and sends it to the victim hoping to fool him and make him enter his account username and password. As soon as the victim enters the required details and clicks on “enter” or “login”, the information goes to the attacker using scripts or online and the victim is redirected to the homepage of the email provider.

Protection

People often fall for such a trap and thus go on to lose their important files, documents or even money. There is no doubt that using hacking technology in a wrong manner to disguise people and fool them is very dangerous and not welcomed and that a serious protection is required to be in place to protect against such crimes but apart from using software protection, a few precautions that if kept in mind, can themselves be a wall against internet hacking.

Such precautions are; not using same passwords in different sites as it puts the person under risk on a widespread basis. Not using the same security and preferably come up with some new security questions. Reviewing the internet history specially after making a purchase online as the details of the card and bank account is left behind. Using services like Shopshield an d Firstdata that allows shoppers to keep their personal information at a single location rather than pn multiple ‘e-tailers’.

Sharing

Sharing can also sometimes be a source of theft, thus keep in mind not to disclose information about going out of town or something similar. Watching out for ‘red flag’ questions as being victim to data theft does not mean that risk of identity theft is less, but it means that the person can be a victim of phising campaign.

One should never open e-mail from any unknown source as hackers are very sophisticated and posses the ability to create very realistic looking emails. And not to forget that reading privacy policies terms and conditions closely as although, all of them may look to be the same language, often people are found signing away their rights along with the policies. For example, some corporation might include a clause enabling them to use the customer’s data and publishing it in dozens or hundreds of sites all of a sudden. Internet Hacking is in itself not a crime but using the technical know-how in an illegal manner is a punishable offence equal to theft. It is a misconception that every hacker is a criminal. There are security systems that are working against internet hacking done with a wrong intention but if some precautions are taken then this crime can be controlled and uprooted.