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Network security is a very real concern for businesses, governments, and individuals alike. Who wants their identity stolen because their credit card info or social security number got leaked over the internet or someone got access to a PIN code or bank account number?
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Network security is a very real concern for businesses, governments, and individuals alike. • Who wants their identity stolen because their credit card info or social security number got leaked over the internet or someone got access to a PIN code or bank account number?
This is one of the easiest ways for a hacker to completely ruin a person's life savings through the internet.
The Number One Rule: • If someone has physical access to a network or machine, it is no longer secure.
The most common and probably most over-looked network security risk is something as simple as someone watching you put in the password to your computer. This could be a friend, a co-worker, or just someone walking by. Be sure that no one sees this information. Pay attention to your surroundings.
Do not leave a cell phone, purse, or brand new laptop laying out for someone to grab.
USB devices such as flash drives and portable hard drives have already undergone government scrutiny within the US Intelligence community, strict controls placed on devices traveling in and out of secured areas.
Laptops and other portable systems like cellphones are similarly controlled within the military environment. • Businesses and offices are often nowhere near this secure, nor are the average small merchant networks and home networks.
Even with the new security measures used by the Department of Defense, a huge and well-known security breach still happened in 2010 when a US Army private allegedly leaked a large number of documents to WikiLeaks, leading to a massive outcry against apparently lax digital security.
Open wireless access points and wireless networks are often an easy way into a company's server.
Open home networks often have easy default passwords that are never changed, and open business network password are usually set to the name of the business or given to customers for use.
These are remarkably simple ways to break into someone's personal accounts or a store's credit card database.
Smartphones are one of the most powerful tools for infecting a network a hacker could ever dream of; it's a tiny fully functional computer in the palm of their hand, complete with a GPS tracking system built-in that can even be used to physically locate the network they want to hack into, going back to the Number One Rule. With this they can not only steal many peoples' annuities but they can also use them with the same device.
In fact, the smartphone actually combines virtually every aspect of the value of physical security into one convenient device. • You can take high definition pictures and videos with them and then transmit them out over any of the many data transmission mediums open on a smartphone. Bluetooth, infrared, 3G, 4G, wifi and, to the exceptionally skilled hackers, older cellular satellite networks.
They also have the ability to wire in via USB and move large chunks of data onto or off of a network. • Not to mention the simple ability to drop a data mining or phishing virus onto the network and possibly infect every other device on the network.
The Number One Rule will serve anyone well. • Just remember to always keep your computer locked. Check the passwords on your home internet connection and into the modem or router itself. Make sure you monitor your cellphone's usage and active connections.
