We normally have only used technology for our good and never would have thought that it can be used against us. Don’t worry it is not like some popular Hollywood movie in which the world will be doomed by terminators. Cybersecurity Hijacking is a serious concern and most companies are spending much money to secure their data and It services.
We are here talking about the data that we generate. There are numerous ways in which we are providing access to our data to people who are not good by nature and that’s pretty common nowadays. Our data is on-demand and is targeted by a lot of people who know a lot about technology.
We all have a smartphone in our hand and you are most probably reading this on a smartphone too. Have you ever wondered what will happen if someone knew that you were reading this? No, and the reality is that even if someone just saw that you are reading an article like this what difference does it even make and that’s where the whole problem begins.
We live in a society that is surrounded and partly dependent on technology. We need our phones to get to the office, we need our car GPS to find direction, to call someone, to text someone and the insurmountable uses of the technology around us. But one thing that we don’t pay attention to is that technology is like any other thing a double-edged sword. However good it provides; it also attracts the bad.
Here we are not only talking about hacking but also the hijacking of your information. You may wonder what is hacking and how different it is from hijacking. Well, we often listen to the news about big companies and tech getting hacked. Such as the recent Twitter accounts of famous personalities getting hacked and not just normal people but many companies CEOs.
This often leads us to the basic question that we need to ask ourselves that is our data safe? Can we trust the apps we are using? If not, what can we do to save ourselves from this?
These are the worries of many app development companies and these security compromises are one of the reasons people use data and IT services to make sure that they are safe from these online threats.
A recent development with the app development services leads us to question how difficult is making an app now is? If you are not sure and careful about the security of your app then it can be hijacked and the user’s data can be stolen. App development services focus a lot on these nowadays and to compliment the trend the security checks are on point to provide a very robust experience with the app that you need.
If you are an SME and want to get an app for yourself then you should consider using the app development services and also make sure there’s some budget for data and IT services due to the need that may arise unannounced. The cyber attacks don’t come announced and are fatal if not taken care of quickly.
Why Cybersecurity or Protection from Cyber Attacks Important?
You may think that this is not that big of a deal because you have not experienced it. Cyberattacks are fatal to our data and to an app development company. Hence, to save us from these cyber-attacks there are cybersecurity experts in the data and IT services sector who specializes in preventing such attacks from happening. Cybersecurity in itself is a practice of securing networks, systems, and different digital infrastructure from malicious attacks.
Now that we are all online and have our web presence, it is the same for a company and for them, it is much more precious than us because our web presence is because they can maintain them. If Facebook goes down today then you will also lose your ability to scroll through your Facebook feed and comment or interact with your friends.
Hence, considering the high stakes that cyberattacks put us in. Companies around the world are pouring money into cybersecurity infrastructure to meet their and our needs. This is to ensure that their business doesn’t go down with a mere attack and our data is not exploited without our own consent.
You may have installed antivirus in your electronics but there is one thing to note that these things can happen directly at the company’s end and we cannot protect ourselves from it. However, it is very unlikely and has only happened rarely in decades.
Our data is well protected and to make sure that the small app development companies and data and IT service professionals can maintain their own apps, there are few things to be done to protect themselves from these cyberattacks. Few of these attacks are common and can be handled with prevention however if an attack happens you will require immediate data and IT services and don’t hold onto that. As soon as you get to know about any such happening, hire some good IT professionals through data and IT services to make sure that your app survives it.
Types of Hacking Techniques
- Bait and Switch
Bait and switch are not a digital hacking technique it has been with us for a long time. This is often used by conmen in various scenarios and is just implemented digitally to take advantage of the large pool of unaware people.
It’s been a favourite of street con men and artists for decades and is still pretty famous. This involves baiting you into something and then smartly switching the product to something else when you are not looking. This can be done in many different ways and is fatal if gotten into contact with it once.
The way this is implemented in the modern world is that they lure you into clicking on a link on websites where it seems to be pretty much obvious that the website is fishy. You will be lured on to click on some link without which you cannot proceed. This will then redirect you to a website that will either serve you inappropriate ads or malware.
Many websites directly start downloading some files when you visit them and that file is most often malware that will infect your device with bad code which can do whatever the owner wants it to.
Clicking on inappropriate ads on untrustworthy websites will also lead to a similar bait and switch which may result in a website that won’t let you leave it until and unless you do what the website wants you to.
To avoid getting caught into this the only thing you have to do is to be careful of any such website that shows you a lot of inappropriate ads and wants you to do something fishy in order to get to the file you want.
Things like these are always malware or another type of bait and switch and if you are there for downloading some file then only download files from the trusted sources such as Microsoft Store, App store and recognized vendor websites.
Don’t click on inappropriate ads and don’t bother to click on any link that urges you to do so.
- Cookie Theft
Cookie theft is also pretty common and can be done on any computer whether it’s running Windows, Mac or Linux. Cookies are small text files that store the data about your session with a website in your browser or your computer storage. Sometimes, this can also store your personal data, financial data, credentials, and most important passwords.
Cookies on most sites are stored in text format which means that your password will just be visible in a text format to whoever gets a grab at that file. This is not the case normally but in most cases, people don’t even bother to read the terms and conditions before allowing access to their own personal data.
Even though your cookie data is encrypted which is on verified websites if stolen the data can be decrypted with modern software and it will then reveal all the information anyone would ever need to do so much with.
You may be thinking that this will take a lot of skill to do but to your disappointment, there are paid web extensions that allow hackers such as these to get access to your data very easily. Even if your browser or device is safe from virus or malware this can still happen to you.
There are numerous other ways to get these little text files from your machine and these are definitely not good for anyone.
Some ways to avoid getting attacked in such a manner is to avoid accepting the cookie policy when you arrive at a website. If the website is requiring you to give access to a lot of data in their cookie policy, reject it straight away and if possible, find an alternative to that website. It may have other ways to lure you into providing them with your data with your own hands.
- DOS/DDOS Attacks
This is a very classic attack which is used to bring down servers and websites entirely for a short period of time if you have access to data and IT services otherwise this is a nightmare for an app development company.
These attacks can be basic but are fatal in nature and for cyber criminals, these are often the practice attack for them. You may be wondering why your app or website is taken down, you may get furious with your app development services but the thing is that this can be the playing ground for new hackers.
A DDOS attack is the one to achieve a Distributed Denial of Service. This attack will leave your website hanging in nowhere and no visitor can visit it because it will get overloaded with bots trying to access your website at the same time. Here we are not talking about a mere thousand, there can be as many as millions of bots trying to access your website and try to log in and do various tasks which are repetitive in nature. These requests that are generated come from preprogrammed bots and this much overloading results in the websites’ server exceeding its capacity in turn resulting in a denial of service for the end-user.
Because the server is busy resolving the issues of the bots normal people can’t access the website and this downtime results in lots of data loss as well. Imagine you are trying to pay someone through your bank’s website and it suddenly starts denying anything and just does not respond.
The transaction you did while this scenario will be lost forever. It will not get registered on any of the servers and your money will be lost. Although this never happens due to the protection payment websites have before even starting the payment.
You don’t have to worry about this particular issue as a customer because things are not in your control here.
Although if you are an app or website owner then you should invest your money in data and IT services or otherwise hire good app development services which can provide you with the services to tackle this DDOS attack.
Many consumer websites use UTM technology against the overflow of requests. This is unified threat management which will provide you with a unique identity as a user and you can access the website with however devices you want or from the same device but a unique identity will be provided to figure out who is trying to access the website. It can figure out whether the user is a human or a bot and then can act accordingly.
Read This Blog: WHY DATA BREACHES HAPPEN AND HOW CAN YOU TAKE CARE OF IT?