With the increase in security in tech, hackers have found new ways to get their way on by hacking. Here are some techniques hackers use during hacking.
You might have heard about the term security breach or hacked in recent times. Well, it makes non techy person quite suspicious on how this things happen. Are they super intelligent or use high end tech?
Hacking is only about logging in to your system, by bypassing security like guessing your password right.
1. Dictionary Hack
Is related to Dictionary? Yes kind of! Well, this dictionary is a bit different from the regular dictionary you use for meanings.
In dictionary hacking, hackers use a dictionary of passwords. The dictionary hack contain combinations of alphabets (a-z), (A-Z) numbers (0-9) and symbols like (@,#,%) etc. The dictionary contains most common passwords that are leaked by other hackers and uploaded to the database.
As it uses only the leaked common passwords, so even a bit strong password will keep you protected.
2. Brute Force
In this type of hacking, the hacker tries every possible combination of characters, letters or numbers. It is even in both upper case and lower case. Like in some passwords one letter is given in caps others in lower case, brute force hackers can crack them too.
They also use the most common leaked passwords, followed by any multiple number of generated combinations.
Technically this type of hacking can let hackers have any password. But practically, it is much time taking. Like even a 6 digit password with symbols like {$% will take 7 days long to crack.
3. Phishing
It is not a kind of hacking in literal sense but is a manipulative ways to get the victim’s password. It normally works as follows:
The hacker makes a login page identical to a reputed company like Facebook. Then the hacker uses the target’s (victim) email or phone number to send the link of the site and asking for any urgent action. If the victim clicks on the link and enters the details, the user id or password, will be sent to the hacker.
If the victim does not click on the link or has 2-factor authentication, the hacker fails.
There is a huge volume of this spam mails sent worldwide. In 2021, Kaspersky’s Anti-Phishing system blocked over 253 Million Phishing mails world wide. In 2022, Google blocked over 18 Million Covid-themed Phishing Mails.
4. Social Engineering For Hacking
It is also a kind of phishing but in real world. In this, an person or a group can act as a client or friend or security consultant for a particular target person or organization. The hacker(person or group) contacts the person or organization and uses manipulative ways to ask for the user id or password.
Social Engineering is being used for long in the past. It may not only limit to passwords, but people can act as plumber or sweeper or guard and gain access to secure areas.
5. Rainbow Table
Suppose an attacker has got your password somehow, but it is in encrypted hashed form. Means it looks entirely different from the original password. Like if your password is logmein, then the MD5 hash for is 8f4047e3233b39e4444e1aef240e80aa.
There are hacker can run some text comparison to decrypt the original password from the hashed form.
There is a list of some precomputed passwords taken out by some hackers. This is the rainbow table. Hackers buy these rainbow table, it makes their hacking quite easier.
6. Malware/Keylogger
Malware or Keylogger are software that is designed for malpractice like hacking. Keylogging is keystroke logging or recording keystrokes. Hackers can record keystrokes remotely when you enter your passwords. It can compromise all your passwords.
A malware can be designed to perform any task both as a keylogger or other functions like stealing your saved passwords.
