How Do Hackers Steal Your Personal Information and How to Prevent It?
| Summary: We spend several hours online daily reading and answering emails, scrolling through social media, and buying from e-commerce stores. But rarely do users learn to prevent data breaches. Knowing how to protect data is essential for a cyber citizen. |
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Hackers are a significant threat to both enterprises and individuals.
According to data from Norton, a leading cybersecurity firm, the number of successful attacks could be as high as 800,000 every year. There is a hacking incident every minute.
That is great news for hackers since they want us to be more engaged online and provide them with more opportunities. Every time we log into a new e-commerce store and pay using a card, there is a brand-new opportunity for them to steal the details.
How do these nefarious individuals work? We explore the dark world of hackers and show you how to prevent data breaches.
How Do Hackers Steal Information?
As computing has evolved so has hacking. Understand how they hack to prevent data breaches.
Make no mistake that hackers are top-notch at coding. They are not a run-of-the-mill gun-toting bank robber with an IQ of 98. Hackers would have made great software developers if they had stayed on the straight and narrow.
Since they understand how to break into your computer, you must now learn how to protect data.
- Keylogger
That is short for the keystroke logger method.
It is ingenious and one of the oldest methods of hacking. The software keeps track of every stroke the computer keyboard makes.
Keylogging software is widely available on the internet.
You believe you are the only person who can see what you type into your device but the keylogger software sends back a report to another person.
Interestingly keylogger not only can help crack passwords but also provides access to whatever is typed e.g. emails, memos, etc.
From your passwords and credit card number to bank account numbers, all is up for grabs with a keylogger.
How to prevent:
- Windows has UAC or User Account Control. By default, it is set to high. When any software wants to install, it asks permission from the administrator. You can prevent data breaches by maintaining this high level.
- Inspect every install. Unless you have asked for an install e.g. setting up a new sound card driver, the PC will never ask permission to install any software. Avoid data breaches by careful use of your computer.
- Keep an updated antivirus on your PC. Antivirus is still the first line of defense against malware.
- Wi-Fi Eavesdropping
This happens if you are on public networks and sending an unsecured transmission.
Hackers participate on the same network. They can tap into data transmission between your PC and the router.
The worst part is they can actually set up a wi-fi network and lure in users. In that case, there is no need to grab information since it is automatically routed through the equipment they own.
How to prevent:
- To avoid data breaches do not use unknown public networks at the airport, railway station, or hotel lobby.
- Try to use sites with HTTPS always. Thankfully almost all payment sites support HTTPS. Avoid using HTTP till you are on your own network. You can read an HTTP page but do not type information there on a public network.
- Try to use software that supports encryption such as WhatsApp, and Google Mail. There is no default end-to-end encryption for Facebook and Instagram yet.
- Browser Hijacking
Whatever security measures you use otherwise, you have little control over the browser.
You need one to connect to the internet. The most popular are Safari, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera.
During browser hijacking, a small piece of software is injected inside the browser. It can happen when you click on a link or an image by mistake.
After browser hijacking, it might show you advertisements (to lure you to a site) or operate a keylogger.
The worst part about it is it does not need great software coding skills since one can buy such software on the Dark Web quite easily.
How to prevent:
- Inspect every install through UAC. Before every installation, ask, did I want this install? Do not click yes to any install. Prevent data breaches by refusing unauthorised installation of browser add-ons.
- Every day, clear the browser cache. Most browsers by default clear only the past hour. Change it to Clear Everything.
- Periodically do a factory reset of the browser. This would remove all add-ons, and all extensions and also clear out any third-party software that is used for hacking.
- Phishing
It is a type of social engineering attack.
Mostly it uses email spoofing.
You receive an email from mail.google.io asking you to log in and change your password in the next 24 hours.
You follow the link given without realizing that mail.google.com is not the same as mail.google.io.
Those who perform phishing go to extreme lengths to set up a fake webpage that looks exactly the same as the original.
Phishing is a numbers game. Even if 1 in 10,000 falls for the bait, if an email is sent to five million there will be 500 victims.
Usually, they poke for credit card information.
How to prevent:
- Learn more about phishing. Phishing is a constantly evolving technique and knowing more is the best defence to prevent data breach.
- Install anti-phishing add-ons. Chrome has several such as Anti-Phishing Chrome Extension, Blue Arca, and NetCraft.
- Do not click on links without finding out where the email came from. You must be smart enough to distinguish between a true and fake email ID. An email from a fake ID will be similar but slightly altered from the original.
- IT Asset Disposal
A hard disk lasts 3-5 years. What did you do with the last hard disk that expired? Did you wipe it before you threw it away?
Most users offer their personal information on a silver platter to hackers and do not realize it.
If you throw away a hard disk while it still has your data you are inviting hackers.
How to prevent:
- Never throw away old hard disks.
- Erase the hard disk using software such as BitRaser Drive Eraser. It can erase the hard drive as you want with several passes of 0, 1, and random characters. Although NIST now asks for only a single pass, make sure you get two passes of 0 and 1.
- Either sell the erased disk to a trusted ITAD agent or destroy the disk with a few blows of hammer.
Knowing how to prevent data breaches is crucial to avoiding a data breach. Buying a data wiping software like BitRaser is an essential step.
Additional Reading: Top 7 Hard Drive Wiping Software in 2022
Last Words
Hackers are very intelligent. But unless you are very wealthy or a celebrity, they rarely run targeted attacks.
For them, it is like dragging the net on the sea bottom and hoping that big fish gets hauled in with the small.
That is why very basic steps coupled with watchfulness can thwart them.
Be aware, use the latest anti-malware software and you will be safe.
About The Author
Girish
Girish is a blogger and writer. He has over 6 years of experience in Data Recovery and Data Eraser technology. In his free time, he writes about technical tips and tutorials.