Russian Hackers
Russian Hackers
Russian Hackers have been in the news a lot lately.
No political commentary here… BUT…
I have seen some questions fly by my email over the last few days wondering about the various types of “hacks” that are out there. I figured I would my two cents…
So here are a few answers…
What you hear in the news… obviously – is considered big time hacking.
Anytime there’s a direct attempt to get right at your personal information – crack passwords, etc that’s pretty bad. Way above my pay-grade.
More common “hacks” that can mess with “average folks.”…
Data lock-ups/Ransomware: If you have all of your files stored on local computers in your office and no back-ups this can be a real a problem. These unsavory characters can lock you out of your computers until you pay the ransom.
Denial of Service: This happened a couple of months back. This is where fake traffic descends on servers. These servers are hosting websites. These sites return error messages and can’t be served because of the overload.
The Yahoo Hack… This has happened twice. (that we know of) The point of this hack is to gain access to Yahoo’s database of users. This information, including emails and passwords can be used to crack other things like online banking, etc. Or, the hackers will sell the data.
Anyone – large and small can be effected by these types of attacks.
Website hijacking: This is a freaky one. Hackers can get control of a site. To the visitor it looks like the site they wanted to visit, but behind the scenes it is stealing information from the visitor.
Phishing: Clicking shady links or links disguised as something you might be familiar with. These are the most common as the prey on trust and/or gullibility.
Because of all the BS out there – you want to be protective and use common sense.
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