What Is Hacking and How Does It Affect Your Business?
Hacking is the use of technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, creativity, and persistence to bypass security measures or access private information or compromised systems. When conducted maliciously by a cyber attacker, hacking can also cause disruptions, steal sensitive data, or spread viruses and malware. A hacker can be a person or an organization, and they can be of either white or black hat status.
Malicious hackers can be motivated by financial gain, information extraction, protesting or making a statement, or simply because they can. The hacker culture has spawned a number of subcultures, including phreaking in the 1960s, homebrew computing and DIY electronics (see life hacking), and software cracking and demoscene in the 1980s/1990s. It has also inspired the hobbyist community of hackers who develop and modify computer hardware, software, and other devices to improve performance or add features, or for entertainment purposes.
The process of hacking typically begins with a device being infected by malware or exploiting a vulnerability in the system’s security defenses. After gaining access, the hacker can then spy on activity, extract confidential or personal information, inject malware, and perform other malicious activities. Upon completing their attack, the hacker may then attempt to hide tracks by deleting log files, altering timestamps and using obfuscation techniques.
Hacking can occur on a variety of platforms, from mobile devices to IoT devices, and it can impact almost any industry. It is important to understand how these attacks occur so that you can better prepare your business and mitigate risks.