What Does Getting Hacked Really Mean?

If you’ve been reading much online, you’ve seen at least a few stories about businesses or people getting hacked. You may even have an acquaintance who has described one of their accounts or services as “getting hacked.”

In the movies, we usually see people being hacked in real time. Black screens appear with green or white text, videos pop up with someone talking or voices appear from your speakers. Popular media depicts hackers as shadowy figures wearing hoodies with masks on and modulated voices. Nearly all of this is wrong.

What does it really look like to get hacked? With so many media depictions, you may not realize that the possibility exists that you’ve already been hacked without your knowledge.

Hollywood Versus Reality

Fortunately, hacks are rarely as elaborate as movies depict. A real-time hack involving graphics and changes to a user’s interface would require incredible computing power, limited or no security on the part of the victim, and a very reliable connection. In short, it would be extremely difficult to pull off.

On the other hand, malware can create situations that appear similar to what your imagination might hold. Ransomware and scareware are types of malware that are designed to create the impression that either you’ve committed a crime, or that your computer has been “taken over” and can only be rescued by paying someone (usually with a money order or credit card number).

Scams tend to be more visually elaborate than actual hacking. Most real hacking involves quietly removing, copying, or modifying someone else’s data. Hackers rarely want to make a big scene as it makes it easier for them to be traced. The few occasions where hackers do something visually based (such as removing a webpage and replacing it with something else) tend to be on purpose.

Your Own Personal Breach

Depending how you’ve been maintaining security on your own devices, you may have been hacked already and never realized it. Non-businesses tend to be relatively low priority targets as your assets may not be enough to attract attention. But that doesn’t mean you’re not a target.

Connecting to public WiFi may have opened your devices to hackers, as there is no security inherent in those systems. A hacker connecting to your device can search through your files for anything valuable, copy it, and leave without a trace unless you’re running special software (which we’ll discuss later).

Depending on the data stolen, you may never know it happened. Some hackers do what they do for a sense of challenge or a thrill. They may bypass weaker security systems as practice for larger targets. If something they can profit from was taken, you can’t rule out that it will be used against you.

Identity theft is a common end result of hacking. Credit card information, billing addresses, social security numbers and other pieces of personal information are all high priority targets for hackers looking to earn a quick buck. When money suddenly disappears from your bank account or strange charges appear on your credit card statement, it may not be because someone was looking over your shoulder.

These kinds of things are typical of a cyberattack, though the hacker may not even be the one using your stolen goods. Such information is frequently sold on the harder to reach areas of the internet where those lacking technological know-how can’t go.

Stolen Accounts vs. Hacked Accounts

Before we get into prevention, we should briefly touch on the topic of accounts. All too often people say “my account was hacked,” but that statement is often not true. Hackers can steal accounts, but more often people will make simple mistakes and become the victim of a scam instead. This leads to a hijacked account.

Hackers usually steal accounts through a few different methods:

• Using software known as a keylogger to record your typing to steal your account login details

• Forcing your password by guessing weak passwords with a program

• Looking up publicly posted information to guess login details (such as answers to security questions)

• Stealing other data that can be used to access your account, including financial information and things such as an address

• Hacking into your device and stealing saved information or monitoring your activities

While a few methods are fairly technical (writing malware, hacking into your device), some of a hacker’s means are very basic and are things you can counteract.

You should note, however, that leaving your account open so someone else can post things on your social media account is not the same as getting hacked. Handing your information away to scammers is also quite different, because there’s nothing technical about misleading someone.

Becoming a Low Priority Target

Make no mistake: if a skilled hacker really wants into your device, there’s little you can do short of literally unplugging it from the internet. Yet hackers have a limited amount of time, so a good strategy is to make yourself a target that isn’t worth the effort.

Hacking takes a while when there’s a lot of security involved, so start by getting yourself a security software package. This should include:

• A security suite program

• A firewall

• A lauded Virtual Private Network (VPN)

The security suite software helps remove threats such as keyloggers that can steal your information and send it to the host who created it. A firewall helps prevent intrusions in your home network by closing unused ports so that there’s only one way in and one way out (and that road is then monitored).

A VPN helps protect your devices by securing your internet connection. You’ll connect to a remote server first, routing your connection through an encrypted tunnel that protects your data and hides your IP address. It’s really the only way to safely use public WiFi. This, combined with the other tools, makes it very hard for a hacker to identify you as a target.

Passwords, as we discussed above, are also very important. Yours should be unique to each service you use, as long as possible (no less than 8 characters), and use varied numbers, symbols, and letters. Don’t discount two-factor authentication when it is available. It drastically increases security for your devices by requiring a second temporary access code to verify your identity.

Some services will require security questions in the event you lose your password, so be sure the answers aren’t something someone can look up! Your high school is usually easy to figure out. Your mother’s maiden name isn’t that hard to look up.

If you feel you’ve been the victim of a hack, tell us about it below. If not, how are you avoiding becoming a target?

About the Author: Cassie Phillips is a cybersecurity writer and blogger who focuses on modern security problems and their solutions for both businesses and casual users. Her goal is a safer internet for all. She hopes her readers can learn to be a part of their own personal solutions.