BotNet News

Hacking is the unauthorized access and manipulation of mobile devices, computer systems and networks. The goal of hacking is to steal or damage data and disrupt operations. This can cause significant financial loss, reputational damage and regulatory non-compliance. For banks and financial institutions, these risks are especially severe.

Hackers have many motivations and attack techniques. The most common are for financial gain, such as stealing passwords or credit card information and selling it on the Dark Web, or extorting money through ransomware. They may also attack for political or social reasons, such as the well-known hacktivist group Anonymous. A more benign type of hacking involves jiggering consumer hardware, such as smartphones and tablets, to run custom programs that are not approved by the manufacturer.

In the early 1990s, hacking gained notoriety when groups of teenagers hacked into large organizations such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, Security Pacific Bank and Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Newsweek published an article on the event that coined the term “hacker.” These teenagers were part of what is now called a botnet – a network of computers infected with malware that attackers control to search for vulnerabilities. The attackers would try millions of username-password combinations until they found a match, and when they did it opened the door to their target system.

Modern hacking is becoming increasingly industrialized and automated. Attackers don’t write code from scratch, but use pre-built kits and subscription-based attack platforms available on Dark Web marketplaces. These tools allow them to be incredibly fast and scalable. The result is sophisticated threats that are harder to detect and evade traditional security filters.