Who are Hackers and its Crimes
Types of Hackers
A Hacker is a person who is intensely interested in
the mysterious workings of any computer operating system. Hackers are most
often programmers. They gather advanced knowledge of operating systems and
programming languages and discover loopholes within systems and the reasons for
such loopholes.
There are generally 10-types of Hackers, they are:
- White Hat Hackers: White hat hackers are the one who is authorized or the certified hackers who work for the government and organizations by performing penetration testing and identifying loopholes in their cybersecurity. They also ensure the protection from the malicious cyber crimes. They work under the rules and regulations provided by the government, that’s why they are called Ethical hackers or Cybersecurity experts.
- Black Hat Hackers: They are often called Crackers. Black Hat Hackers can gain the unauthorized access of your system and destroy your vital data. The method of attacking they use common hacking practices they have learned earlier. They are considered to be as criminals and can be easily identified because of their malicious actions.
- Gray Hat Hackers: Gray hat hackers fall somewhere in the category between white hat and black hat hackers. They are not legally authorized hackers. They work with both good and bad intentions; they can use their skills for personal gain. It all depends upon the hacker. If a gray hat hacker uses his skill for his personal gains, he/she is considered as black hat hackers.
- Script Kiddies: They are the most dangerous people in terms of hackers. A Script kiddie is an unskilled person who uses scripts or downloads tools available for hacking provided by other hackers. They attempt to attack computer systems and networks and deface websites. Their main purpose is to impress their friends and society. Generally, Script Kiddies are juveniles who are unskilled about hacking.
- Green Hat Hackers: They are also amateurs in the world of hacking but they are bit different from script kiddies. They care about hacking and strive to become full-blown hackers. They are inspired by the hackers and ask them few questions about. While hackers are answering their question they will listen to its novelty.
- Blue Hat Hackers: They are much like the script kiddies; are beginners in the field of hacking. If anyone makes angry a script kiddie and he/she may take revenge, then they are considered as the blue hat hackers. Blue Hat hackers payback to those who have challenged them or angry them. Like the Script Kiddies, Blue hat hackers also have no desire to learn.
- Red Hat Hackers: They are also known as the eagle-eyed hackers. Like white hat hackers, red hat hackers also aims to halt the black hat hackers. There is a major difference in the way they operate. They become ruthless while dealing with malware actions of the black hat hackers. Red hat hacker will keep on attacking the hacker aggressively that the hacker may know it as well have to replace the whole system.
- State/Nation Sponsored Hackers: State or Nation sponsored hackers are those who are appointed by the government to provide them cybersecurity and to gain confidential information from other countries to stay at the top or to avoid any kind of danger to the country. They are highly paid government workers.
- Hacktivist: These are also called the online versions of the activists. Hacktivist is a hacker or a group of anonymous hackers who gain unauthorized access to government’s computer files and networks for further social or political ends.
- Malicious Insider or Whistle blower: A malicious insider or a whistle blower could be an employee of a company or a government agency with a grudge or a strategic employee who becomes aware of any illegal activities happening within the organization and can blackmail the organization for his/her personal gain.
Cyber attacks alter computer code, data or logic via malicious code resulting in troublesome consequences that can compromise the information or data of the organizations to make it available to cyber criminals.
Cyber attacks consist of various attacks which are hacking, D.O.S, Virus Dissemination, Credit Card Fraud, Phishing or Cyber Stalking.
Out of the top 10 most targeted countries by cyber attackers, India ranks fourth and cybersecurity defenders are facing a lot of threats from these cyber criminals. Cyber attacks is an illegal activity and are continuously increasing in India for financial loot.
Major and Minor Cyber Attacks in India 2018
SIM Swap
Fraud
In
August 2018, two men from Navi Mumbai were arrested for cybercrime. They were
involved in fraudulent activities concerning money transfers from the bank
accounts of numerous individuals by getting their SIM card information through
illegal means.
These
fraudsters were getting the details of people and were later blocking their SIM
Cards with the help of fake documents post which they were carrying out
transactions through online banking. They were accused of transferring 4 crore
Indian Rupees effectively from various accounts. They even dared to hack the
accounts of a couple of companies.
Prevention: The information required for
such a scheme is gathered via various public domains and is misused later.
Sharing personal information with unknown applications and domains can help in
minimizing the risk of having your personal information reaching people with
malicious content.
Fraudsters
use the victim’s information in various scams and trick them into fraudulent
activities. It is advisable therefore that the site where an individual is
entering his banking or other details should be verified for authenticity, as scammer
uses the fake site to get the information directly from prospective victims.
Cyber
Attack on Cosmos Bank
A
daring cyber attack was carried in August 2018 on Cosmos Bank’s Pune branch
which saw nearly 94 Crores rupees being siphoned off.
Hackers
wiped out money and transferred it to a Hong Kong situated bank by hacking the
server of Cosmos Bank. A case was filed by Cosmos bank with Pune cyber cell for
the cyber attack. Hackers hacked into the ATM server of the bank and stole
details of many visa and rupee debit card owners.
The
attack was not on a centralized banking solution of Cosmos bank. The balances
and total accounts statistics remained unchanged and there was no effect on the
bank account of holders. The switching system which acts as an interacting module
between the payment gateways and the bank’s centralized banking solution was
attacked.
The Malware attack on the switching system raised
numerous wrong messages confirming various demands of payment of visa and rupee
debit card internationally. The total transactions were 14,000 in numbers with
over 450 cards across 28 countries.
On the national level, it has been done through 400
cards and the transactions involved were 2,800. This was the first malware
attack in India against the switching system which broke the communication
between the payment gateway and the bank.
Prevention: Hardening of the security systems
by limiting its functions and performance only to authorized people can be the
way forward. Any
unauthorized access to the network should immediately set an alarm to block all
the access to the bank’s network. Also, to minimize risk, enabling a two-factor
authentication might help. Through
testing, potential vulnerabilities can be fished out and can make the entire
digital part of the banking system safe.
ATM System
Hacked in Kolkata
In
July 2018 fraudsters hacked into Canara bank ATM servers and wiped off almost
20 lakh rupees from different bank accounts. The number of victims was over 50
and it was believed that they were holding the account details of more than 300
ATM users across India.
The hackers used skimming devices on ATMs to steal
the information of debit cardholders and made a minimum transaction of INR 10,000 and the maximum of INR 40,000 per account.
On 5 August 2018, two men were arrested in New
Delhi who was working with an international gang that uses skimming activities
to extract the details of the bank account.
Prevention: Enhancement of the security
features in ATM and ATM monitoring systems can prevent any misuse of data. Another way to prevent fraudulent activity is to
minimize the risk of skimming by using lockbox services to receive and transfer
money safely. This uses an encrypted code that is safer than any
other payment.
Websites Hacked: Over 22,000 websites were hacked
between the months of April 2017 and January 2018. As per the information
presented by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, over 493 websites
were affected by malware propagation including 114 websites run by the
government. The attacks were intended to gather information about the services
and details of the users in their network.
Prevention: Using
a more secure firewall for network and server which can block any unauthorized
access from outside the network is perhaps the best idea. Personal information of
individuals is critical for users and cannot be allowed to be taped into by
criminals. Thus, monitoring and introducing a proper network including a
firewall and security system may help in minimizing the risk of getting hacked.
Phishing Attack on Wipro
Phishing Attack on Wipro
There were reports about an attack on the Wipro
system by major online news portals. Attack as per reported was a phishing
attack and was done by a group through gift card fraud.Even though the attack was not a massive one, many
employees and client accounts were compromised.
How to avoid Phishing attacks?
- Always think before you click. Phishing links can impersonate as authentic links with some minor changes that might not be visible at a single glance. Make sure that you have read the complete link before clicking it.
- Install measures that can effectively prevent such attacks.
-
Make sure that the websites you are accessing are secure. Usually, a secure website will have a security certificate to safeguard all the customer information. Make sure that that website begins with https and has a lock symbol on the extreme left of the address bar. Check your online account on a regular basis and make sure that there are no suspicious activities. Change the password frequently. Update your browsers regularly as updates often will have security patches for existing loopholes. Keep your personal details secret
Big B Amitabh Bachchan ‘s Twitter Account Hacked!
Lately, Amitabh Bachchan’s
twitter handle got hacked and the perpetrators posted hateful
messages putting everybody in shock.This can happen to big companies also. However, if
the news gets out this can be a huge blow to the credibility of any company.
How to prevent Social Media Profile Hacking?
- Social
media is infested with third-party applications. Make sure that you are
using legitimate authorized applications
- Use
strong credentials and change it often
- Install
proper antivirus
- Enable
two-factor authentication
Exposed Health Care Data
Be it any government-related data; it has to be
kept in utmost secrecy. What if it’s exposed? That’s what happened lately when
healthcare data of India was left exposed without enough security measures.
This mistake was found out by Bob Diachenko during a regular security audit. He
found out that India based IP contained a data pack that’s been left exposed without
any security measures.
How to Prevent Database Hacking?
- Make
sure that proper web application firewall is installed
- Strengthen
network security by login expiration, changing password,
- Make
sure that the admin level of your website is not exposed with a simple
password
- Change
the database prefix from wp6 to something random which can’t be guessed
- Stay
updated regarding the latest hacking threats
Personal Data Exposed from JustDial Database
An unprotected API end was the issue in this
incident. Justdial one of India’s leading local search platform let a loose end
which exposed all of their user data who accessed their services through the
web, mobile, and their phone number. Leaked data includes name, email, number, address
gender, etc. the shocking part according to reports is that since 2015 the API
has been exposed like this.
How to make your API secure?
- Validate all the incoming data
- Use the essential method for authentication verification
- Monitor and manage using automated scripts
- Encrypt data
Security Testing and its Significance
Hackers and criminals are getting smarter every
day. The countermeasure is to predict their attack and block it in the most
effective way possible before any unfortunate events.
In Testing, mostly 4 major types of testing ate
performed
- Network security
- System software security
- Client-side application security
- Server-side application security.
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