Hackers are information criminals who roam the internet looking for weakly secured systems to access and steal information from. They are well versed in their information crimes and are always loaded with information based weapons and exploits that they carry around to use on the weak systems they chance upon on the internet. These hackers are evil elements of a secure information universe. They use every trick in the book to access information systems and exploit the weaknesses in legacy programs that are not well matched or maintained.
First, the hackers will take advantage of a system that is not well secured by trying simple hacking attacks on it. They might try to attack a web application by attaching commands to the URL they use to access the system, and whenever it gives in, they will move further and try to let themselves into the web applications. They can also try to enter random passwords and usernames into an authentication system that protects the web application. If the user passwords are weak and easy to guess, they will break into the system and take over.
In addition to stealing passwords from information systems, hackers have other types of exploits that are really effective in information systems that use a database. As databases are designed and implemented on systems, they can be queried in funny ways that reveal information that should not be given out to the users. This is what they use to access the information. A simple search tool on a website can send queries into the database where the information is getting sourced from hence easily revealing information to the hackers.
Hackers have plenty of tricks and tools in their trade, and even as their arsenal grows larger and larger, we should not let our online systems stay exposed or weakly protected. A strong means of protecting information makes our online systems safe and secure against all kinds of attacks. Keeping the information systems updated also ensures that all the current security patches are applied, and source code that was still buggy and exposed to the hackers sealed off. Properly secured systems will not let the hacker’s attempt to take over the system but will keep them off.
In conclusion, information security is crucial and sensitive, with the hackers are clever and improving their methods and strategies on attacking systems. Exposed systems are easy to exploit. In some cases, taking inventory of your information systems’ security status might help identify where a hacker is most likely to identify a weak spot in your security and get into the system. The exploits might keep growing, but the security measures also keep improving and hinder them from getting the chance to use these attacks on any information system.
