Computer Memory Hacking

Professor Dima Salman

February 15, 2015

Hackers was a term associated with computer programmers and geeks or intellectual people, mostly men exploring the advancement of technology. Hacking of memory is illegally accessing a computer for malicious gain. The hacker’s dictionary refer to hacking as unauthorized access to computer systems, either for fun or for malicious or fraudulent purposes (Hutchison, 2011). Technology is evolving on a daily basis. The need to protect your computer is at an all-time high. With the right tools, breaking into a computer’s encrypted data is very easy. Princeton did a study of low level tech hackers can access the most well protected computer (Roberton, 2008).

The most popular tools the hackers use are Back door remote administrative programs and Denial of Service (DoS) Back door remote works through an uploaded exe file on a website that seems to be trusted. This software is usually spread between pcs. The infected pc communicates with someone via email at a work computer. The infected pc infects the work pc and the virus spread. This is similar to the situation at JP Morgan Chase. The hackers where able to get through via an employee. The FBI is involved because as the writers says the attempted hacking should have stopped but they believe other holes in the system were left unprotected (Goldstein, 2014). The type of breach at Chase was a simple backdoor process which gained the hacker’s access to approximately 90 servers. The breach was discovered but it also uncovered a vulnerability in the infrastructure of a large bank that has challenges protecting their servers on a day to day basis (Krebs, 2014)

Denial of Service causes your pc to crash or become busy processing useless data, it ignores the breach going on. This is what happened with Home Depot and Target. The Malware was uploaded to the mainframe and it isolated the pc from the Point of Sale system. When the POS system was used at a Target store the virus uploaded and caused the system to expose the cards used for purchases. The Malware is called “Black POS”. According to Krebs, the same people attacked Home Depot with the same type of Malware which is called Kaptoxa, a strain of Black POS which does the same thing to the POS system (Krebs, 2015).

Security is a process. Protecting the company and personal information is a group effort. My company provides a lesson on security once a year and the individual have to acknowledge they understand some of the items such as not taking calls or accessing the account of a friend or relative; locking your pc when you leave your desk and never giving anyone including management your password. This seems simple but what about the people who do not have the luxury of training, can you blame them for something they did not know? Ways to protect your information is Lockdown your password; secure your connection and set up account alerts (Komando, 2014). Locking down your password consist of a strong password, usually 8 characters with upper and lower case and a symbol. This creates a road block for the hacker. You can’t get lazy about this method and you have to do it for each account you have. If the hacker breech one area of the account, the other accounts are like taking candy from a baby. Securing a connection could involve a WiFi connected to a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This involves an extra layer of security while on the WiFi. The VPN provides a slower speed but it is a secure speed. The last one is setting up account alerts. We can be everywhere 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. When it comes to our banking information, we can set up alerts to send text and email when a certain criteria is met. One of the alerts could be anything a transaction is completed, sent a text with the amount. Another could be any amount of $5. This is not a sure-fire solution but you have to be diligent in checking your accounts on a consistent basis in a secure environment. My bank notices when I sign in at a different pc or on a different phone. I have to go through a two-step verification. It gives me the last 4 digits of my phone number or a few letters of my email and I have to pick a verification method. Also if there is a purchase over $250, the bank will call me and I have to provide a code that I created in order for the purchase to go through. It can be time consuming and inconvenient but I would rather be inconvenient than hacked.

Hacking is becoming big business in the Healthcare Industry. Anthem, which was hacked last week put more than 10 million people at risk. Anthem is the second-largest healthcare provider in the US (Gainesville, 2015). Most people think this is nothing because it is not a bank and no credit cards were compromised according to Anthem but this is huge because of the privacy of medical information. The black market pay approximately $50 for medical records (2015). This may seem minimal but as hackers are patient criminals who lay low until the right time. Medical records have names and if you are the Steve Jobs and you are prominent in the community, because he had Cancer and Apple is a publicly traded company, people close to him made sure the records were close to the vest so no hostile takeover can happen. This is just an example of having a medical record in the hands of the wrong person. Billing and insurance fraud goes along with these records. Social Security numbers can set up identity fraud and phone scams. In today’s world of high medical costs, credit card information goes for $5 on the black market because of the shelf life (2015). The credit card has about a 24-48 hour life span before it is shut down. It is hard to shut down a medical history, a social security number and financial information.

The hackers who used to be thought of as the experts, have now become the thief who take hostages. Billions are being spent on protecting our resources and it will take a village to help combat this epidemic. The village needs to trained and re-trained as often as possible. Technology continues to evolve exponentially. However these technological advancements continue to pose a threat to both individuals and information resources of companies and governments.

References

Goldstein, M., Neglected Server Provided Entry for JP Morgan Hackers. December 22, 2014

Hackers see rewarding targets in health care companies." Gainesville Sun. 2015, February 05

Hutchison, E., Hacking. Helicon Publishing. 2011. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com on February 10, 2015

Komando, K., Special "5 steps to keep your accounts safe from hackers and scammers." Gannett News Service. 2014, November 06

Krebs, B., Krebs on Security. Home Depot Hit By Same Malware as Target. September 7, 2014

Krebs, B., Krebs on Security. A First Look at the Target Intrusion, Malware. January 14, 2015

Robertson, J Computer Memory Vulnerable to Hacking, 2008