What is Hacking?
Hacking is the practice of using a device, system or network to gain unauthorized access. It can be used for malicious purposes such as stealing data, disrupting services or even inflicting harm on individuals and companies. It is also used for ethical reasons such as testing security systems and identifying vulnerabilities. This is known as ‘ethical hacking’ or ’white hat hacking’.
There are four key drivers that lead to bad actors hacking websites or systems: 1) financial gain such as stealing credit card details and defrauding financial services, 2) corporate espionage (to steal trade secrets from competitors), 3) political and social change (such as the Sony PlayStation hack in 2011 which resulted in 77 million users losing their gaming service for a month) or 4) anger (revenge against those who have wronged them). The majority of hacking cases involve financial or criminal motives but hackers can be motivated by a range of other factors.
Hackers gain unauthorized access through weaknesses in hardware, software, networks or personnel. These weaknesses can be technical or social in nature and can exist in everything from IoT devices like smart TVs to internet-connected security cameras to medical monitoring systems. Vulnerabilities are often found when there is a lack of regular security updates or when people click on malware links or open infected files in phishing emails and text messages. These weaknesses can be easily mitigated by implementing security updates regularly and by not opening or clicking on suspicious emails or texts.