We hear now and then about a computer or website that has been 'hacked.' Or sometimes a major company or even a government agency. We might learn that a great deal of personal consumer information has been stolen, as from a credit card company, or government database. Or the effect of the 'hackers' might turn out to be the shutdown of an electrical power grid or the air traffic control of a major airport. So who are hackers? They are individuals who manage to circumvent all the safeguards (passwords, encryption codes and 'firewalls') on a computer or system of computers or network to gain unauthorized access to the information therein. They must use sophisticated computer skills to 'hack' their way through those safeguards, hence the name. We see the consequences, but just how does this happen? What tools or techniques do hackers use to bring down an entire network.

The inside job: Perhaps the easiest way to shut down a network or facilitate the unauthorized release of information is from within. This is the computer age and computers run just about everything. A disgruntled employee, or a person attempting to cash in on accessible information within his or her work circle, possessing the technical know-how and access codes can relatively easily gain access and information to meet their purposes. This is usually a 'high' level person who already possesses the passwords necessary to gain access to the system. A tech savvy individual can then extract information for personal gain or sabotage the system. They might also release a wealth of information intended to expose what they perceive to be wrongdoing on the part of a government, agency, or business entity.

The overload: Ever get so completely overwhelmed with everything that is going on that your mind simply shuts down and goes numb? One of the most frequently used strategies used to shut down a computer-based system is to overload it with information until points in the network (computer-based) simply can't handle the flood of data and 'crashes.' This occasionally happens without any ill intent. For instance, an electrical power grid may experience an extreme peak in demand or suffer a surge from a natural source that overloads the capability of the grid, shutting the computer driven system down. But if enough people target the same system with enough information at the same time, it can also experience an information overload and crash. This could be done accidentally as in massive online ordering for a particular popular product to be released at a particular time, or done deliberately to disrupt the system. It is low tech and effective, but usually causes only a mild disruption.

The worm: Suppose I want to get all the personal information you have stored in your computer and monitor your online and email activities from my computer, but don't want you to know about it. How would I do that? First, I'd have to find a way to get in. I'd have to get past your passwords. I'd have to get past your virus protection program. Then I'd have to insert a computer program that would relay your personal information back to my computer. Impossible? Hardly. It happens all the time and so we read in the news about the Russian hackers that infiltrated the DNC or the Chinese hackers that managed to gain access to U.S. military secrets. There is no computer system that is 100 percent 'hack proof.' At the international level, it's called cyber-warfare. At the corporate level, it's corporate espionage. And at the personal level, it's usually about identify theft.

This is only a very brief review, and there is a lot more that can be said about this. Books have been written on this subject. But the take-a-way should be that no computer system is one hundred percent secure. Every system has a back door. There are ways to get around passwords. And every time a new 'secure' system comes along, there are hackers eager to find a way to 'crack' it.

 

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