YOU MUST BE CAREFUL MY PEOPLE,SOME ONE CAN HECK INTO YOUR COMPUTERS, MAKE FAKE ACCOUNTS, USING YOUR INFORMATION AND PICTURES PRETENDING TO BE YOU, AND WRITING POST AND INBOX MSG, THAT YOU NEVER WROTE ASWELL AS USE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, BIRTH CERTIFICATES, AMONG OTHER THINGS Massive bank hack: What you need to know By Jose Pagliery @Jose_Pagliery August 28, 2014: 1:43 PM ET Hackers have managed to break into 7 of the top 15 banks. Heres what you need to know. What happened? Some of the biggest banks -- including JPMorgan Chase (JPM) -- were recently hacked. The attackers used never-before-seen malware to break into the banks computer systems, according to someone with direct knowledge of the investigation. And the hackers got in deep enough to delete or manipulate bank records. Does this affect me? As a consumer, not yet. Customer bank accounts are often insured by the bank in the event of a cyberattack. Check with your bank. But business bank accounts are another matter. Theyre not typically protected from theft. Small businesses could be on their own. Related: FBI investigating hacking attack on JPMorgan Whats the damage? Hackers burrowed themselves deep into these computer systems and got access to sensitive internal records. With that kind of access, they might be able to steal from customer accounts. Customer privacy is also at stake. Plus, criminals could have the banks investment playbooks. Hackers could also wipe out a banks entire computer network, according to Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer of Trend Micro (TMICY). Who did it? Thats still unknown. Some are quick to point to hackers in Russia. Trend Micro has spotted a spike in attacks on U.S. and European banks from computers located in former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe. The massive surge started July 24, amid souring U.S.-Russia relations and economic sanctions imposed by Western nations upon Russia. Related: Hackers attack Sony PlayStation Network But its easy for hackers to spoof evidence. They can bounce signals from computers in other countries. So far, the evidence pointing to Russian hackers or even the Russian government is circumstantial. Why did this happen? FBI investigators and independent cybersecurity specialists are trying to figure that out. What now? Just sit back and keep an eye on your bank statements. Wait to hear from your bank for any instructions. But if you do, be careful and make sure its actually your bank. If you get an email or letter, look up the banks phone number on its official website and call directly. And if you get a phone call, hang up (politely) and call back the real number. Related: Secret app didnt actually keep you anonymous Related: Hospital networks failure led to massive hack First Published: August 28, 2014: 1:43 PM ET How Hackers Work Thanks to the media, the word hacker has gotten a bad reputation. The word summons up thoughts of malicious computer users finding new ways to harass people, defraud corporations, steal information and maybe even destroy the economy or start a war by infiltrating military computer systems. While theres no denying that there are hackers out there with bad intentions, they make up only a small percentage of the hacker community. The term computer hacker first showed up in the mid-1960s. A hacker was a programmer -- someone who hacked out computer code. Hackers were visionaries who could see new ways to use computers, creating programs that no one else could conceive. They were the pioneers of the computer industry, building everything from small applications to operating systems. In this sense, people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were all hackers -- they saw the potential of what computers could do and created ways to achieve that potential. A unifying trait among these hackers was a strong sense of curiosity, sometimes bordering on obsession. These hackers prided themselves on not only their ability to create new programs, but also to learn how other programs and systems worked. When a program had a bug -- a section of bad code that prevented the program from working properly -- hackers would often create and distribute small sections of code called patches to fix the problem. Some managed to land a job that leveraged their skills, getting paid for what theyd happily do for free. As computers evolved, computer engineers began to network individual machines together into a system. Soon, the term hacker had a new meaning -- a person using computers to explore a network to which he or she didnt belong. Usually hackers didnt have any malicious intent. They just wanted to know how computer networks worked and saw any barrier between them and that knowledge as a challenge. In fact, thats still the case today. While there are plenty of stories about malicious hackers sabotaging computer systems, infiltrating networks and spreading computer viruses, most hackers are just curious -- they want to know all the intricacies of the computer world. Some use their knowledge to help corporations and governments construct better security measures. Others might use their skills for more unethical endeavors. In this article, well explore common techniques hackers use to infiltrate systems. Well examine hacker culture and the various kinds of hackers as well as learn about famous hackers, some of whom have run afoul of the law. In the next section, well look at hackers tricks of the trade. SUPER PHREAK Before computer hackers, curious and clever individuals found ways to manipulate the phone system in a phenomenon called phreaking. Through phreaking, these individuals found ways to make long distance calls for free or sometimes just played pranks on other telephone users. MALWARE Programs designed to harm or compromise a computer are called malware (as in malicious software). Malware includes a wide array of nasty batches of code that can wreak havoc to your computer, your network and even the Internet itself. Some common forms of malware that might turn your computer into a zombie include: Computer viruses - programs that disable the victims computer, either by corrupting necessary files or hogging the computers resources Worms - programs that spread from one machine to another, rapidly infecting hundreds of computers in a short time Trojan horse - a program that claims to do one thing, but actually either damages the computer or opens a back door to your system Rootkits - a collection of programs that permits administrator-level control of a computer; not necessarily malware on its own, crackers use rootkits to control computers and evade detection Backdoors - methods of circumventing the normal operating-system procedures, allowing a cracker to access information on another computer Key loggers - programs that record keystrokes made by a user, allowing crackers to discover passwords and login codes Zombie computer code usually is part of a virus, worm or Trojan horse. Zombie computers often incorporate other kinds of malware as part of its processes. ADS BY GOOGLE Remove Malware (Free) Remove all Malware in 2 mins. #1 Download for 2014. Rated 5/5! myturbopc Recent DDoS Attack? Free Consultation from the Experts. Assess Your Risk & Get Protected. arbornetworks/ddos Instant FTP Site Upload, Download, Share Large Files Free Trial. No Credit Card Required egnyte/Free-Trial Hacking a Computer Crackers transform computers into zombies by using small programs that exploit weaknesses in a computers operating system (OS). You might think that these crackers are cutting-edge Internet criminal masterminds, but in truth, many have little to no programming experience or knowledge. (Sometimes people call these crackers script kiddies because they are young and show no proficiency in writing script or code.) Investigators who monitor botnets say that the programs these crackers use are primitive and poorly programmed. Despite the ham-handed approach, these programs do what the crackers intended them to do -- convert computers into zombies. In order to infect a computer, the cracker must first get the installation program to the victim. Crackers can do this through e-mail, peer-to-peer networks or even on a regular Web site. Most of the time, crackers disguise the malicious program with a name and file extension so that the victim thinks hes getting something entirely different. As users become savvier about Internet attacks, crackers find new ways to deliver their programs. Have you ever seen a pop-up ad that included a No Thanks button? Hopefully you didnt click on it -- those buttons are often just decoys. Instead of dismissing the annoying pop-up ad, they activate a download of malicious software. Once the victim receives the program, he has to activate it. In most cases, the user thinks the program is something else. It might appear to be a picture file, an MPEG or some other recognizable file format. When the user chooses to run the program, nothing seems to happen. For some people, this raises alarm bells and they immediately follow up with a flurry of virus and spyware scanner activity. Unfortunately, some users simply think they received a bad file and leave it at that. Meanwhile, the activated program attaches itself to an element of the users operating system so that every time the user turns on his computer, the program becomes active. Crackers dont always use the same segment of an operating systems initializing sequence, which makes detection tricky for the average user. The program either contains specific instructions to carry out a task at a particular time, or it allows the cracker to directly control the users Internet activity. Many of these programs work over an Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and in fact there are botnet communities on IRC networks where fellow crackers can help one another out -- or attempt to steal another crackers botnet. Once a users computer is compromised, the cracker pretty much has free reign to do whatever he likes. Most crackers try to stay below the radar of users awareness. If a cracker alerts a user to his presence, the cracker risks losing a bot. For some crackers, this isnt much of a problem since some networks number in the hundreds of thousands of zombies. In the next section, well look at the relationship between zombie computers and spam. computer.howstuffworks/computer-pictures.htm
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 07:26:43 +0000
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