A closer look at cybercriminals

I work from home, the quietest workplace I can think of so far. As a part-time freelance homemaker and writer, I submit articles and subscribe to several reputable newsletters and do a never-ending search online. But before I sign up, I read the privacy policies, some short and some boring.

I am just one of millions of unknown but honest internet users. Why, in my opinion, would I be so concerned that someone in the Internet community would make me the target of harassment or nasty tricks?

Nonetheless, I feel secure in knowing that the websites I am interested in have a compromised sense of security policy.

But when my computer screen started flickering like it was panting and slowly turned off months ago, I blamed the fluctuations in electrical current. But when my files disappeared and my computer alarmingly stopped cooperating, I referred the case to the expert, my husband.

For the first time, I was attacked by a computer virus.

It was not as simple as disconnecting the connection from the computer, sleeping on it for a few days while a computer surgeon works on the damage so that everything is like new.

I saw months of hard research work, finished manuscripts hidden on my hard drive, long hours online, time, money and effort my spouse has invested in setting up the entire system, it all goes down the drain and becomes nothing.

Going through the repair and rebuilding process is painfully tedious, time consuming, and expensive.

I was angry. I took it as an attack on my person. The perpetrator has no heart.

A series of disturbing but rather interesting cyber intrusions that followed prompted me to quench my curiosity and do some personal research on what inspires the behavior behind the waste of skills, time and resources involved in these harmful cyber activities and other electronic petty crimes they do. life. miserable for honest internet users.

CYBER CRIMINALS

Anyone who enters your home without your consent is theoretically committing a crime. Your computer system is an extension of your limits and should not be violated. When someone gains unauthorized access to your computer in any way or uses computer technology to carry out a crime, they are committing a cyber crime.

The Hacker is always the first person that comes to mind regarding cyberspace breaches. After all, who else can be so knowledgeable and brave enough to break into someone else’s computer system?

Hackers used to have higher goals for their being. In the early days of computer technology, they were the computer experts / geniuses who tested computer systems, with the consent of the owners, looking for loopholes and recommending better programs or fixing bugs themselves to thwart any effort to exploit the system. faulty by more dangerous systems. ‘creatures’. They even had the Hackers Code of Ethics.

There are two types of hackers: ethical professionals, highly trained professionals who rent their skills to organizations concerned about the security of their own network. They represent hackers of the previous generation. The other type are CyberRambos or simple crackers, despised by Elite Hackers, Crackers crack / break systems for superficial reasons. (UC San Diego Psycho. Dept .: Computer and Network Resources)

But from what many hackers have become these days, it is difficult to attribute their destructive behaviors to nobility rather than outright violation.

And by whatever name they are called, these cybercriminals have simply become faceless and nameless “hackers” to their victims.

WE MOTIVATE

An online article by David Benton titled: ‘What’s in a Cookie?’ of SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Information Security Reading Room, establishes seven psychological profiles of malicious hackers as documented by Canadian psychologist Marc Rogers MA, Graduate Studies, Dept. of Psychology, University of Manitoba and former researcher of police computer crimes:

Newbie / Tool Kit (NT) – New to hacking, has limited computing / programming skills; Rely on ready-to-use pieces of software (toolkits) that are readily available on the Internet;

Internals (IT) – Disgruntled employees or former employees competent in how the company’s internal systems work;

Virus Coders (CDs) and Writers: Programmers who would like to see themselves as the elite; They write code but not for personal use. They have their own networks for experimenting with “zoos.” They let others enter their codes in the “wild” or on the Internet. (Jeremy Quittner’s Hacker Psych 101);

Cyber-Punks (CP): antisocial geeks, the most visible, socially inept, and burdened by unresolved anger that they lead to cyberspace; they relate better to computers than to humans and have better computer skills and some programming abilities; capable of writing their own software, they intentionally engage in malicious acts such as defacing web pages, sending spam, stealing credit card numbers, etc.

Old Guard Hackers (OG): They have no criminal intent in its real sense, but show an alarming disrespect for personal property with keen interest in intellectual endeavor.

Professional Criminals (PC) and Cyber ​​Terrorists (CT): the most dangerous; They are professional criminals and former intelligence agents who are weapons for hire. They specialize in corporate espionage, are extremely well trained, and have access to state-of-the-art equipment;

Additionally, Rogers pointed out that not all hackers are criminals. He has categorized them as follows: (Jeremy Quittner, Hacker Psych 101);

Old School Hackers – Similar to Stanford MIT 1960s-style computer programmers who are honored to be a hacker; interested in analyzing systems without criminal intent; they believe that the Internet was designed to be an open system;

Script Kiddies / Cyber ​​-Punks – Aspiring hackers and crackers; carelessly using other cracking programs with the intention of vandalizing and corrupting systems; They are often caught red-handed because they brag about their exploits online.

Professional criminals: breaking into systems and selling information is their livelihood; they are hired for espionage; they often have ties to organized criminal groups; He is not interested in disrupting systems, but more in stealing intelligence data;

The list of motives is endless: boredom, illicit emotion, addiction, blackmail or low self-esteem, and a desperate need for recognition from the group of fellow hackers, all done cowardly under the protection of anonymity.

“Behind the psyche of criminal hackers can be a deep sense of inferiority. Mastering computer technology or shutting down a major site causing millions of dollars in damage is a true power trip.” (J. Quittner, Hacker Psych 101, Hackers: Computer Outlaws)

Jarrold M. Post, a George Washington University psychiatrist says: It is (the hackers) a population that takes refuge in computers because of their problems maintaining relationships in the real world. “

The less information you share on the Internet, the better. But as computer wizards, hackers will always find ways to reconstruct your identity even with very few details in their possession.

However, there are several ways that you, a legitimate Internet user, can protect yourself. Know the warning signs and learn how to thwart any attempt to victimize you. Do not accept the blows with a seated wire.

“Constant awareness and updating of knowledge is the best defense against any attack,” wrote Shayne Gregg, CA (NZ), CISA, CMC, in ‘A Response to Recent Cyberattacks.’ (InfoBytes of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association)

I recommend The Complete Idiot’s Guide to: Protecting Yourself Online by Preston Gralla, Executive Editor, ZDNet. It is comprehensive, easy to understand, and a must have for every Internet user’s library.

HACKERS, CYBERPUNKS, et al.

Cyber ​​Crime is not monopolized by hackers or crackers. The pedophile, thief or drug dealer in your community who hires computer experts to carry out their illegal activities online is just as guilty and despicable.

Like criminals who roam the real world, cybercriminals are a group of psychologically unbalanced and misguided citizens who have the knack to commit electronic transgressions or hire a computer expert to do the job and they will never get enough despite his Cyber ​​Glory and ‘conquests’.

Still, the tendency to commit a crime hides in healthy images, while the unsuspecting are often caught off guard. What you don’t see is sometimes what you get.

Hackers cannot be strictly stereotyped. Peter Shipley, Chief Security Architect for Big Five firm KPMG, obverse: “I know a lot of hackers, including one who spends an hour and a half in the gym every day. He’s built. I know women who are awesome who they are hackers. “

Without exceptions

Every time high-tech crazed people travel through your cables to malfunction, steal your identity, or get paid to cause you trouble, it’s a sign that you don’t take the necessary precautions every time you log in. .

When I asked myself quietly back then “Why me?” I guess the answer would be “And why not?” As with most inventions, the Internet is abused and mishandled. And as always, a helpless victim completes the drama.

Anyone can be a random victim regardless of whether one is honest, educated, high-profile, residing on the other side of the world, or a stay-at-home mother working hard and peacefully from home.

Hackers won’t care how their prey will feel.

But I still hope that today’s hackers will make good use of such impressive intellectual work, just as their predecessors intended piracy to be used.