Thursday, March 28, 2024

PC Audits, Social Engineering, & How Hacking Is Changing

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When most people think of hacking, they envision hordes of nerds crowded around computers in a dark room, drinking monster energy drinks, fingers covered in cheeto dust, clicking furiously in telnet and suddenly, poof. The world is under their thumb. 

Hollywood did little to deter hackers from becoming a growing underground presence, and each capture of a high profile hacker only served to propel their respective causes into the limelight and make celebrities of them. 

Hacking is mainstream, which by its very definition is oxymoronic.  There are whitehat hackers, blackhat hackers, and everything in between.

The idea of hacking, or manipulating systems to a personal end, is one that is more popular than it ever has been.  Now, hackers wear suits, designer shirts and jeans, and make more money that many people will ever see in a lifetime.

But, for every action, there is a reaction.  Hacking has been weaponized by companies, political groups, and entire countries through cyber warfare.  As more and more dangerous software and materials are poured out onto the internet in their entirety or sold in the underbelly of the internet, attacking is easier than protecting.

PC audit for instance play a vital role for companies that want to beef up security. PC auditing software plays a more fundamental role than ever in being able to notice everything from unlicensed software to unlawful uses of user roles and data. 

Even beyond the technical attacks, social engineering has become more complex than ever. For instance, in Montreal, the cultural capital of Quebec, social engineering and scamming is a way of life. 

One hacker we came across told us of how they were using spoofed login pages for banks to capture key details of unsuspecting users by redirecting them to their spoofed pages, capturing their data then forwarding them to their intended page. A simple trick, but a difficult one to beat for many unsuspecting victims.

They then capture as much of their information as they can, call them to fill in the gaps (social engineering) posing as officials.  Most don’t realize it. And then notice large amounts of money being taken from them or credit cards being used they didn’t sign up for. 

Modern hacking is increasingly split into two escalating factions. Those that create dangerous or cool tech for the love of it, and those that do so to make money from it.  The former are often treated by their peers as a valuable commodity and the latter the ones that exploit that affection.

As technology shoots forward at breakneck speed, its harder than ever to keep up with security protocols to ensure that everything is good. Individuals are breaking down walls just as fast as security professionals can throw them up, so companies are arming themselves to the teeth with as good security as money can buy.

The problem lies in that often, money isn’t creative. Money buys the best to the market standard, not the best necessarily.

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