Hackers

[Rizzler]

I heard from a 3rd party that someone a few years back had hired a hackers to break into my home PC to try and get competitive business information ! Is this still possible ? Would it be via wireless ? How do I protect myself ? Maybe a bit off topic or wrong forum but can anyone shed some light ? And how would one know ? Does your PC slow down or do strange things ? Thx

 

[w1z4rd]

Very possible, happens (but only if you have something of great value). Its very easy to do to people who own windows machines. Though you really gotta be worth cash to get on the radar.

 

[bin3]

Most hacking as it is known today is social engineering more than anything technical. Some unknown guy phones up your secretary and asks for your modem number for a quick support call or something like that. Not saying that proper security measures should not be in place, but that most hacking is not so much technical a technical skill as a social skill.

 

[w1z4rd]

Most hacking as it is known today is social engineering more than anything technical. Some unknown guy phones up your secretary and asks for your modem number for a quick support call or something like that. Not saying that proper security measures should not be in place, but that most hacking is not so much technical a technical skill as a social skill.

You are a bit behind the times, hehe. The old dialing a modem is not really what happens today, but you are 100% right on the social engineering. *pats his Social Engineering tool kit and metasploit*

These days its easier... find random staff member. Spear phish them with a carefully crafted email with a link to a site. Bang. An exploit or two later and you control the browser.. and can spawn a service. From there you can pivot onto other machines on the network.

 

[bin3]

You are a bit behind the times, hehe. The old dialing a modem is not really what happens today, but you are 100% right on the social engineering. *pats his Social Engineering tool kit and metasploit*

These days its easier... find random staff member. Spear phish them with a carefully crafted email with a link to a site. Bang. An exploit or two later and you control the browser.. and can spawn a service. From there you can pivot onto other machines on the network.

Yip: Totally agreed, though the 'modem number' is just used as an example.

I suspect it's probably the easiest to talk to a few people in an office, and with a bit of research you should probably be able to guess 70% of the passwords: guaranteed there is at least one 12345 or Password in there somewhere.

Other options are plenty: fact of the matter is -- it's very, very easy to be hacked. And even your R 20000 dedicated firewall machine with redundant everything won't be able to prevent an attacker walking into your office and chatting up the nearest person ...

 

[w1z4rd]

Yip: Totally agreed, though the 'modem number' is just used as an example.

I suspect it's probably the easiest to talk to a few people in an office, and with a bit of research you should probably be able to guess 70% of the passwords: guaranteed there is at least one 12345 or Password in there somewhere.

Other options are plenty: fact of the matter is -- it's very, very easy to be hacked. And even your R 20000 dedicated firewall machine with redundant everything won't be able to prevent an attacker walking into your office and chatting up the nearest person ...

Yeah. Google realized this which is why they banned MS machines after the great Chinese hack

 

[Rizzler]

Thx for replies... also do you think that there are people working for ISP's who could be bribed to divulge the personal info if they had my IP address ? How secure do ISP's keep this ? Do only certain high-level people have access ? Would alarms be triggered if someone tried to access ?

 

[w1z4rd]

Thx for replies... also do you think that there are people working for ISP's who could be bribed to divulge the personal info if they had my IP address ? How secure do ISP's keep this ? Do only certain high-level people have access ? Would alarms be triggered if someone tried to access ?

Your ISP is unlikely to be a way for a hacker to spear phish you.

 

[cpu.]

You are a bit behind the times, hehe. The old dialing a modem is not really what happens today, but you are 100% right on the social engineering. *pats his Social Engineering tool kit and metasploit*

These days its easier... find random staff member. Spear phish them with a carefully crafted email with a link to a site. Bang. An exploit or two later and you control the browser.. and can spawn a service. From there you can pivot onto other machines on the network.

So when you've taken control of the browser you can acquire admin rights to start/stop/spawn a service? Is that even possible?

 

[w1z4rd]

So when you've taken control of the browser you can acquire admin rights to start/stop/spawn a service? Is that even possible?

[video=youtube;Z0x_O75tRAU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0x_O75tRAU[/video]

Ignore the lame stuff at the start, but it shows you how easy it is to turn a process and gain elevated permissions.

 

[Elimentals]

You can think of computer security as security to a house.

If there is a way out, there is a way in. You can have the biggest alarm with the bests locks on the market, all it takes is someone to befriend your maid...

As for ISP giving out info, I doubt they need to even try and ask an ISP. I use to sit in a mailing list where if you dropped company's name and they would quickly respond with all kinds of data about that company, every one trying to out do the other on how much info they can get. Its all a game to them.

If you really want to protect something get a specialist in, go see a consultant or 2.

 

[cpu.]

Ignore the lame stuff at the start, but it shows you how easy it is to turn a process and gain elevated permissions.

I will watch the video when it's done downloading. :erm: Telkom 384 uncapped is not kind to me during the day.