Pure Hacking Blog

Hacking is one of those terms dropped in conversations to prove management is on top of the issues related to computer security. Computer security breaches are reported everyday and occur in even the most tightly controlled environments simply because people are not thoroughly trained in how to identify them or mission critical systems have points where security is missing. Operations where you would think all precautions have been taken find themselves embarrassed when someone steals important information for the purpose of committing a crime.

As recently as November 2008, it was reported a prison inmate gained access to employee online files containing personal information using a computer that was not intended to have access to the internet. The programmers thought access to the internet had been prevented. But “not intended to” doesn’t mean much when using integrated computer systems, because hackers can find ways to get around portals that are guarded. It’s like securing the front and back doors of a building while leaving the side windows unlocked.

Understanding the Problem

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What is your definition of hacking? Most people think of the news stories that relate to big companies having embarrassing problems as their data is compromised. But in truth, hacking goes a lot further than this.

It doesn’t always have to be someone you don’t know who hacks into your systems and causes problems for your business. It could equally be someone who works for you that doesn’t have your best interests at heart. This is because the basic meaning of hacking is when someone accesses some or all of your computer systems without permission. And it doesn’t just happen over the internet.

Quite often, many people don’t see how widespread computer hacking can be. Assuming that they are only in danger from internet based attacks means they may not be covered for all risks. Even those companies that do all they can to prevent hacking which occurs online may have unwittingly turned a blind eye to other dangers.

This is why an understanding of what hacking is and what it involves can help you to protect your own business more fully. But what do you do if you don’t know all the ins and outs of the threats posed?

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Here is a theoretical situation for you to consider. Let’s suppose you have been doing business with one specific company online for a number of years. You have never had any problem with them at all during that time.

And then the day comes that you discover your credit card details have been compromised during an online transaction. In time the problem is solved and you are reimbursed, but you cannot shake that feeling that someone else knows your card details. You cancel that account and get a new card.

Now if someone asked you how you found your experience with that company, what would you say? Would you remember the years of good service you had from them? Or would you remember that one major problem?

We all know the answer to that one. If you run your own business and you have an online presence, you must make sure you protect your clients in every way you can. The confidence of the people who keep your business going is paramount to your continued success. As soon as that confidence is dented, it can take a long time to recover it – if you ever manage to do so at all.

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How aware are you of what the latest threats are to your internet security systems?

If you are looking puzzled then it is time you took positive steps to start discovering what the cyber criminals’ latest techniques are, because if you don’t you will be in a much weaker position when it comes to protecting your own website and business from their reach.

So how do you keep up with what is going on?

The first thing you can do is to keep tabs on the news – more specifically, news sources which focus on the internet and what is going on with regards to security issues. If the source is a reliable one then you will know what aspects of a business or a website the criminals are currently targeting, and you will be able to take the right steps to prevent yourself from becoming a victim before it actually happens.

The second thing that you can do is more pro-active than that however, and it involves hiring a professional company to come in and check whether your business and data is secure on a regular basis. This will obviously cost money and it is money that some businesses are not willing to pay; however when you consider what you are getting for that money you can see that it is a priceless service that could well prevent your business from losing thousands if a hacker did manage to break through.

The problem is that if you want to know what the cyber criminals are up to, you need to do the research yourself. You need to know where to look to get that information, and you need to be sure that it is correct. All of that takes up valuable time, so why not hire a service which concentrates on providing network, wireless, VoIP and application security solutions to do all the hard work for you?

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It seems that we end up reading about the errors and setbacks suffered by various companies when it comes to network security more often than most of us would like these days.

But does that mean hackers are becoming even smarter… or is it simply that some businesses are (dare we say it) asking to be beset with security problems?

In some cases, that is certainly and unfortunately the truth of the matter. Basic errors can be made in many areas, due either to a sense of complacency – “it’s always been fine doing it this way before so it will be fine again this time” – or simply the fact that the right systems are not in place to handle the level of security that is clearly required.

This is where it pays to keep tabs on what other businesses are doing online. More to the point, it can really pay dividends to keep up with news on those businesses that have made fundamental mistakes regarding their internet security systems, so that we can learn from those mistakes without having to go through the hassle and worry they cause ourselves.

This is a better version of the ‘what if’ game. Don’t create a hypothetical situation that could happen regarding your business security, leaving you to figure out what you might be able to do to prevent it happening in the first place. Instead, you can look at a real live situation occurring to someone else and work out how you would cope with it – as well as identifying ways in which you could avoid it before it actually happened.

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Every single time we go online, go about our business or do any other business activity related to the internet, we are running the risk of letting someone through our defences. It stands to reason then that we need to be doing everything we can to keep our business security levels as high as possible. Every single business that has ever experienced a security breach will tell you that it is one of the most worrying and disruptive events that a business can go through.

But does that point to training for all members of staff in a company that has a big presence online? Is that the way to make sure that cyber security levels are kept at the best possible level?

In truth, while it isn’t the only way that you can keep your business safe it is certainly a step in the right direction. The best solution is to hire the services of a knowledgeable company that exists to make sure other businesses are kept safe online. However that does not automatically mean that you have no responsibility to train staff regularly in order to help your cause as well.

Put simply, regular training can help prevent security breaches from taking place at all, because quite often loopholes or areas of fragility are created in a business and its daily dealings purely because a member of staff has done something – or not done something – that is essential to maintain a high level of internet security. If businesses take more responsibility and organise regular training sessions for employees then there is less chance of a security issue being raised at all.

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Whenever someone takes out their credit card, accesses your website and pays for goods, they are opening themselves up to the possibility of fraud. But of course, that is a very over simplified statement regarding this problem.

There is a lot that the customer can and should do to make sure their details are kept safe. A good example is making sure they are paying through a secure site and that the address bar still contains the right address. However there is a big onus on the company taking the payment to ensure that everything is kept safe too.

The truth is that it doesn’t take hackers very long to run up purchases on a credit card once they have all the details related to it. And of course, there is all the information related to the customer as well which needs to be protected. This means that all websites have an even greater responsibility to their customers and visitors to keep their details as safe as possible.

Computer internet security is arguably the most important part of any online business. It isn’t just the initial fallout from payment information being compromised that is damaging, either. It is undoubtedly the damage to the level of trust held with that company that can have the biggest effect over time.

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When it comes to the security of your online business, how responsible are you with the safety of your website and all the information that is tied up with it? The answer to that question will tell you a lot about how safe you can expect your business to be both now and in the future.

There are two types of people in this area – ones who are pro-active and ones who are reactive, and to keep your website as secure as possible you want to make doubly sure that you fall into the first group.

So why is this? Why should you be pro-active regarding your internet security?

The reason is because being pro-active means that you don’t wait for something to go wrong in order to analyse how effective your solutions really are, or how protected your business and your customers are. If you are reactive on the other hand, you will find yourself merrily going along on a day to day basis with your head in the sand… not even considering the fact that there might be a problem with anything until one actually occurs.

And if you have read even a fraction of the news stories online which point to the activities of the cyber criminals, you will know that they are always finding ways to breach the security of companies who don’t take their own protection seriously.

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The recent developments regarding the Large Hadron Collider – a machine built to try and figure out how the Big Bang happened – were overshadowed not long after the experiment started by news that hackers had managed to access one of the computers being used for the experiment to register their distaste at what was going on.

While the experiment itself was unharmed the general public cannot now find out what is going on because the website related to it has been hacked and cannot be accessed.

So in answer to the question posed by the title of this piece, the answer would appear to be that we are still some way behind them.

Hackers act on all kinds of motives, and one of the reasons why they have so many opportunities to hack into websites is that some people think they are only at risk if their site takes payment information from others. That simply isn’t the case, because some hackers do what they do simply to compromise internet security, or to make a point of how easy it can be to hack into a facility. There are numerous examples of hackers managing to get past the defences of government websites and those relating to parts of the law, so there is clearly no single reason why websites are continuing to be hacked into and exposed as being insecure as a result.

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Okay so here is a fact for you – the biggest name businesses with the biggest websites raking in the most money online are the ones that are most at risk from cyber criminals. Right?

Actually, that isn’t necessarily true – and that is why so many smaller businesses are caught short with their woefully dismal attempts at internet security.

There is no question that a huge business selling goods over the internet is obviously going to be taking in a lot of money, and therefore they will have plenty of card details and customer details in their possession. But that doesn’t mean that smaller businesses aren’t equally – or perhaps more – at risk than they are.

Let’s consider this for a moment. The biggest sites know that their success rests partly on how secure their business is. If they cannot protect the information of their much valued customers then their business is not going to be a very stable one – because if the worst happened they could quite easily end up losing everything.

And it would arguably be far worse for a huge business like this, because they have the funds and the wherewithal to make sure they get the best in the business when it comes to hiring internet security consultants to check the security of their systems. There is really no excuse for them not to take every single measure in the book and more besides to protect everything on a regular basis.

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