How Hackers Attack Your Computer Systems

Hackers are always looking for loopholes in your system’s security. They use them to gain access to your private information. Sometimes, they attack your system in order to prevent you from gaining access to your files, later demanding a ransom—a phenomenon now known as ransomware. For businesses, this can be catastrophic.

So, how do these hackers get into your devices?

Gaining Unauthorised Access to Your System

Hacking refers to the practice of gaining access to another person’s computer without their permission. Hackers employ different tactics to do so. These include phishing, malware and exploiting the vulnerabilities in your system’s security.

Once they break into your system, they can access to your emails, bank account, and other details. They might change your passwords and lock you out of the system.

Scammers might impersonate you and send out emails that direct people to fake websites. Sometimes they even send out emails asking for money.

Malicious Software

Also known as Malware, hackers use this software to keep track of what you are doing over the internet. They can also use it to damage your computer.

Your computer gets infected with a malware when you click on a suspicious link in an email. A malware steals information like your usernames and passwords and forwards it to a third party.

Worms, Trojan horse, and Spyware are some of the most commonly known malware.

DDoS Attacks

A distributed denial of services involves hackers overloading your network by sending large data packets. Your system is not able to handle the excessive data and stops functioning properly.

Unlike hacking and malware, in DDoS attacks, there is no need to access the computer. A DDoS attack originates from multiple sources. Usually, this includes a network of compromised computers.

Government Initiatives

The government is aware of the threats that businesses face in the cyberspace. The Criminal Code Act was passed specifically to deal with computer-related offenses. All the states and territories have separate laws that deal with cyber crimes.

In addition to that, the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network was also established to assist people who are victims of a cybercrime.

Companies also need to take initiatives to make sure their system stays secure. Get in touch with us. We offer services like web application penetration testing and web security audits. Visit our website and look at the additional services we offer.

Contact us at +61 (2) 8078 6952.

Emerging Cyber Security

Latest targets of cyber attacks have been wearables, home automation, and self driving cars.

Cyber Security Challenges These Days (Infographic)

Cyber Security Trends and Threats in 2018 (Infograph)

Do you know 54% of companies has experienced one or more successful cyber attacks that compromised their data, this year.

Here are some cyber security trends and threats in 2018 you should know about.

DDoS Attacks-Ensure That Your Sensitive Data Stays Secure

Most businesses these days have made a switch to digital technology. Although this move has proven to be quite beneficial for businesses, there are certain problems that businesses face as well. The biggest of these problems has been an increase in the rate of DDoS attacks.

Distributed Denial Of Service Attacks

Distributed denial of services attacks refer to an online attack, which prevents a website, or a service from running smoothly. It might result in the website not displaying the content available or it might affect the speed of your computer when connected to the internet.

The goal of the hackers in these cases is to steal sensitive information. Therefore, it is imperative that you prevent these attacks from occurring in the first place.

Why Do Such Attacks Succeed

In majority of the cases, companies become victim to this kind of crime because they do not have the tools to prevent these attacks from occurring. Some of the tools that companies use in order to keep their sensitive data safe include:

· Firewalls

· Routers

· Switches

However, none of these tools are effective in case of a DDoS attack. In some cases, they actually result in businesses becoming even more susceptible. For example, a firewall might create bottlenecks, which increase the chances of outages.

Types of DDoS Attacks

There are different kinds of DDoS attacks. Some of them include:

Application Layer

These types of attacks are designed to look like innocent requests. However, their goal is to actually crash the website. Experts measure the magnitude of these kinds of attacks based on the number of requests that are sent per second.

Non-Volumetric

These kinds of attack revolve around protocol attacks. Some of these include:

· SYN floods

· Pings of Death

· Fragmented packet attacks

These kinds of attacks can result in consumption of resources. They do so by overwhelming system memory so that the server ends up crashing.

Volumetric

Some of the attacks that fall under this category include:

· User datagram protocols flood

· ICMP floods

· Spoofed packet floods

The goal of these attacks is to saturate the bandwidth of a specific website. The extent of the damage is measured through bit in a single second.

How To Prevent These Attacks

There are certain measures that IT personnel within a company can undertake in order to address the issue of DDoS attacks. DDoS mitigation services can help in this regard.

The IT personnel in companies can also develop strategies for countering DDoS attacks and develop mitigation plans in order to strengthen their company’s defences.

Creating a risk profile of the company can also help companies solve this issue. Get in touch with us. We offer mobile application penetration test and services. We can conduct a data assessment and highlight the flaws in your system.

In addition to that, we can also help identify security issues for mobile apps. You can contact us at +61 (0) 2 8231 6635 or visit our website for further information.