3 Ways You Can Get Hacked and How to Avoid Them

3 Ways You Can Get Hacked and How to Avoid Them: Hacking is something that many people fear but don’t know enough about to prevent. They tell themselves that they’re too small to get targeted and that nobody would ever want to target them. The people who think that might not already be hacked (if your computer is running annoyingly slow, you should do a deep scan for viruses as that could be a miner), but they are also making themselves exponentially more likely to be hacked. Knowledge is power! Increase yours by knowing how you can get hacked.

Bait and Switch

What is it?

The bait and switch involves a hacker buying advertising space on a website and getting directed to a page that’s infected with malware, which can be used to gain access to their computer. The ads are often attractive, with equally attractive download links on the actual page, which might trick a user into downloading even more malware.

How to Avoid It

Have a good adblocker like AdNauseum, which also protects against malware. You should also only download anything from trusted sources, but you might have trusted this advert. Make it a habit to scan every single file that you download with an antivirus, they’re not at all watertight, but they help. If you own a small business, then you should also get a network and data security system like Capstone IT Services (Florida) CyberShield, which uses a combination of firewalls and antivirus to protect you and the customer data you’re obliged to keep safe.

Eavesdropping

What is it?

Eavesdropping is merely monitoring computer systems to get information that people don’t want you to get. This can be shockingly simple – there’s an Androidapplication that allows users to eavesdrop for free. This is much less likely to target you specifically, more commonly targeting those who use public WiFi.

How to Avoid it.

Don’t use public WiFi, and if you do, use a VPNor don’t log-in to any sites whatsoever. Make sure that you have a good, long password on your router at home, with a mix of upper and lower cases, symbols, and numbers.

Phishing

What is it?

Phishing involves sending a fake link to a user. This could be a fake download link sent from a seemingly trusted email address (which has actually been spoofed) or by getting a user to click on a link they think is to a trusted site (but has also been spoofed). Once the victim enters some data, the hacker can get private information of the target victim by using a trojan. Phishing might also involve social engineering, manipulating the victim into giving more information.

How to Avoid it.

Don’t trust anything that’s too good to be true and always be vigilant. If something seems slightly odd, be extremely cautious – trust your gist processing. It’s a good idea to disable JavaScript automatically on new sites, allowing you to enable different scripts one by one. The browser PlugIn ‘NoScript’does this, giving you more control over how you allow different websites to interact with you.