In our last blog, we outlined some common tricks hackers can use to infiltrate your network, steal data, and generally wreak havoc upon your business. Unfortunately, that was just an introduction to basic hacker techniques. Cyber criminals have devised many more methods to gain access to your sensitive information, such as these five sneaky tricks.
They sneak in through public Wi-fi networks. Even if your business network is very secure, hackers can still cause harm via public Wi-fi networks. Any time one of your employees conducts business on the go, using a mobile device, they should be wary of public internet connections.
Tip: Tell your employees not to conduct sensitive business (such as financial transactions) over public Wi-fi networks. If they must work on the go, tell them to use a browser extension such as HTTPS Everywhere to encrypt communications.
They take advantage of human errors. Hackers are aware of common misspellings, and use that information to create fake websites such as micrososft.com. Then these websites are used to gain your login information to the real websites, download malware onto your computer, or steal data from your computer.
Tip: Tell employees to be very careful to verify they’re on the correct website before entering login information, and to check for “https” in the address bar before entering financial information.
They love it when you forget to turn off Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a handy feature on many handheld devices, but hackers can use it to connect to your device and steal data.
Tip: Remind employees not to conduct business from their Bluetooth-enabled devices, or to at least turn off Bluetooth beforehand.
They love your WEP encryption. Older routers use a type of encryption called Wired Equivalent Privacy, which is very easy for hackers to manipulate. Once inside your network, they can see pretty much everything you do online.
Tip: Upgrade your routers to a WPA or WPA2 type.
They will send you fake updates. You know you’re supposed to install updates to all software regularly, in order to keep things running as they should. But hackers will sometimes send out realistic-looking fake updates, which then install malicious programs on your computer.
Tip: Verify that updates are real by visiting the software provider’s website. And if the pop-up disappears when you close your browser window, it was probably a fake.
