Cyber villains often come up with new tools and tactics in order to hoax naïve users. These innovative techniques are exploiting systems and networks of even the savviest users. As a lot of cyber-criminal activities are being committed nowadays, government has started spending a considerable amount of money to increase cyber security. Even the major players like Facebook, Twitter, PayPal are not spared. Hackers are trying to bring them down by directly targeting them throughout the year.
Understanding the motives, capabilities, and tools of hackers can give us a fair idea about their plans. But how exactly do these modern hackers carry out their attacks?
We have jotted down a brief overview listing commonly used techniques by hackers that plague us today:
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DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are a major concern for online brands. A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is technically not a hack. In short, a DDoS attack makes a website or service unavailable by overwhelming it with fake traffic(zombies) or requests.
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Injection Attacks
When a hacker deliberately injects a piece of code into a website or program to execute remote commands that can read or modify a database, that’s called an injection attack. An attacker may also be able to modify the database on the spot to gain access to weak systems.
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Cross site Scripting (XSS)
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF or XSRF) is an attack that forces a logged in user to perform an action on a website without their knowledge. We have seen various emails that contains a large sparkly image inviting the reader to a discounted online sale or instant chat with a celebrity. As soon as the user clicks on that image a trigger gets fired which loads the script.
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DNS Spoofing
DNS spoofing is based on presenting a fake DNS information to a victim, in response to their DNS request and, as a result, forcing them to visit a site which is not the real one.
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Social Engineering
This increasingly popular hacking technique entails the attacker convincing the victim to part with sensitive information — like a credit card number — in good faith. It’s less about code, and more about sneakiness. They then confidently ask for the victim’s personal information, including passwords and credit card numbers in order to supposedly assist them.
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Symbolic Linking
A symbolic link, or symlink, is method used to hack Linux servers. The symbolic link is essentially a shortcut, much like the shortcuts Microsoft users know and use.
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Clickjacking
Clickjacking is a practice of hijacking “clicks” in a website context. It is vulnerability in the user interface of the websites. Using this sneaky tactic, attackers can trick website surfers into clicking on a link that they were unaware of.
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Brute Force Attack
Brute force hacking is the act of repeatedly trying different passwords or encryption keys in order to get the right answer.
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Fake Wireless Access Points
Have you ever noticed a suspiciously large number of open wireless access points at a coffee spot? Well, your suspicions were well founded. Hackers regularly set up fake wireless access points (WAPs) in order to lure the free Wi-Fi scrounger that exists within us all.
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Encryption Bypassing
Encryption protocols help protect the user information flowing through major websites and messaging services. It’s a system that keeps our data and private messaging safe from prying eyes.
This was just a small glimpse into the dark cyber world. Everyday hackers are coming up with new tricks and techniques to breach our security. If you happen to know any other techniques, then don’t hesitate to leave your feedback in the comments section below, so that security professionals can prepare a counterattack against them.
You are not alone in this battle. Start thinking in a crooked way—alike hackers, in order to stay ahead of their vicious schemes.
After all, to know your enemy, you must become your Enemy-they say!