How to Hack Computers

                             A Guide to Hacking Computers for Beginners

Contents

Continuation of ........ previous notes

Chapter 16 – Protecting Yourself from Hackers
     1. Software Updates
     2. Change Default Usernames and Passwords
     3. Use Strong Passwords
     4. Properly Configure Your Firewalls
     5. Antivirus and Antimalware Software Solutions
     6. Using VPNs
     7. Backing Up Your Data
     8. Web Browser Security
Final Thoughts


Chapter 16 – Protecting Yourself from Hackers

At this point in the book you have probably already asked yourself at least once, “What can I do to protect myself from hackers?” The good news is that there are a lot of easy and simple measures you can take that will drastically reduce your chance of being hacked by a nefarious black hat hacker on the Internet. This chapter focuses on the different strategies you can use to make your computer
and home network more secure. For those of you who are very technologically savvy, a few of these might seem like no-brainers. However, you would be surprised how many people fail to implement even the simplest measures regarding their Internet security.


1. Software Updates


Software updates are crucial to protecting yourself from hackers, but too manypeople ignore updates. Most operating systems have an automatic update setting that will automatically download and install patches to the operating system. The problem is that most people are apathetic or just plain lazy and they don’t want to take the time to install the updates. And why not? To be honest, it’s a bit of an
inconvenience to some people.


You might be right in the middle of a large project or your work day, and installing updates requires that you reboot your computer and wait for an unknown amount of time while the operating system install the patches. But I’ve got news for you – you need to take great care to install updates as soon as humanly possible.


Even after some of the viruses mentioned in chapter 3 were discovered and patched, there were still millions of computers that were still contained vulnerabilities all because the users failed to update their software. If everyone had installed the updates as they came out, the viruses would have been stopped dead in their tracks.


2. Change Default Usernames and Passwords

Too many people don’t think twice about changing the default usernames and passwords on their networking equipment. While most people try to create unique usernames and passwords for their personal computers, they often forget to secure network devices, wireless routers, and even their printers. Wake up people, hackers not only have ways to perform password attacks but they already
know how to find the default usernames and passwords to your wireless router in a matter of seconds.


Furthermore, some people fail to secure their Wi-Fi network. Instead of using a security algorithm that will make it hard for attackers to join their network subnet, they give them an open door and invite them to come inside. Some, but not all, wireless routers don’t include a default wireless password.


Worse yet, when people are initially configuring their wireless routers, they fail to add a password to their Wi-Fi. You simply can’t leave these values at their defaults if you hope to protect yourself from online attacks. Lastly, most wireless home routers have an option in the configuration that determines who can remotely manage the device. If you lock down this setting to a specific IP address, hackers won’t be able to log into your wireless router even if they know the username and password!


3. Use Strong Passwords

Not only should you create unique usernames and passwords for your devices that are different from the default values, but you should also make your passwords strong. You can do this by making them as long as possible and by including numbers, letters, and special characters. Though it’s true that hackers have ways to perform dictionary and brute force attacks whereby they try to go through every possible combination to find the correct password for a system, know that these techniques don’t work in every situation. Some websites and networking devices have built-in protection against brute force attacks that don’t allow you to attempt to login for a certain time period after a specified number of failed login attempts. Password security is a huge area of study, and most hackers know what types of data users incorporate into their passwords to remember them easier. So don’t make your street address, family pet’s name, or birthdays part of your passwords.

Oh, and don’t be one of those jokers that has their password written on a sticky note that is attached to your monitor. A hacker implementing social engineering wouldn’t even have to try. You’re making it too easy for them by displaying your passwords for all the world to see. In addition, make sure that you don’t store your passwords in plain text files or other types of files that aren’t encrypted. If a hacker does steal some of your data and they get their hands on a file that contains usernames and passwords to other sites and services, you’re in for a world of hurt.


4. Properly Configure Your Firewalls

Firewalls are a critical part of any security solution designed to protect users from hackers, and you need to make sure that your firewall is configured correctly. In the past, I have seen some people struggle with opening the right ports to get their software configured correctly. One area this happens a lot is with gaming.

Many games need specific ports opened that aren’t well known, and in a fit of madness and frustration, users choose to open all the ports on their firewall to make their game work correctly. This is a colossal mistake, because it will allow hackers to penetrate your network firewall if none of the ports are blocked. If you have problems getting a game to work on your home network, just do a
quick google search to see which port needs to be opened!

Furthermore, many people fail to take advantage of software firewalls. While many hardware firewalls have most of the ports blocked by default and do a good job of protecting a local area network, but few people protect themselves with a firewall on their host computer. If you are a Windows user, whether you know it or not you already have a software firewall that will add an extra layer of protection between you and black hat hackers. Though sometimes it is appropriate to disable your software firewall to allow a program to function correctly, you always need to remember to re-enable it after you have finished your work.


5. Antivirus and Antimalware Software Solutions

If you do get hacked and a hacker manages to hack your system with a virus or a Trojan, how will you know it exists without antivirus and antimalware software? Using a computer without security software is like begging for an attacker to steal your personal information.

But it doesn’t stop there. It has been said many times before, but understand that torrents are frequently used as a distribution system for viruses. Too many people have fallen victim to a hacker’s virus because they wanted to watch some video content without paying for it. If you download torrents without antivirus software, you’re just asking for trouble. If you do have antivirus software, you can scan the files you download before opening them to detect any potential malicious code embedded in your download and avoid a computing crisis. For that matter, you should scan every download before you open it. You never know what could be hiding in an innocent-looking file.


6. Using VPNs

If you aren’t aware of VPN tunnels, you need to know the immense value they bring to the table. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is essentially a service that encrypts all data communications between two endpoints – effectively making it impossible for a hacker, governmental agency, or petty Internet crook to unscramble and decipher the data. This guide isn’t promotional material for VPN
providers, but the fact of the matter is that they can prevent you from getting hacked.

Not only that, but they can stop the government from stealing your data. As a result of the information leaked by Edward Snowden, the US government,and the N.S.A. have been found to be capturing emails, photos, telephone calls, instant messages, and many other types of data transmissions in an effort to prevent terrorist-related activities. However, the N.S.A. has stated that they haven’t found any information that has stopped even one terrorist-related event. By encrypting your data, you will make it safe from hackers around the world while it is in transit through the public Internet.

7. Backing Up Your Data
 
You might think that backing up your data is only a measure to protect yourself from hardware failure. While it does certainly help you out a ton if your computer fries, you should know that using backup software will protect you from black hat attacks as well. Some of the more sophisticated attacks damage and corrupt files, or even embed malicious code into common everyday files such as word documents. By keeping a backup copy, you can rest assured that you will have a clean and virus free copy of your data in the event of an attack. Remember the Crypto Locker virus in chapter 3? If only the users had backed up their data, they wouldn’t have had to worry about paying an Internet huckster loads of money to reclaim their data by means of ransom.

8. Web Browser Security

There are also a lot of things you change in your web browser that will drastically reduce the chance of a successful attack. As we discussed earlier, hackers can use malicious scripts to steal cookie and web browser data to steal the passwords to various sites.

Make sure you don’t save and cache all of your username and password information in your web browser when visiting your favorite sites on the Internet. This is a huge No-No, because you are leaving low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking within the grasp of black hat hackers and Internet thieves. You’re also a lot better off if you disable cookies in the first place. By disabling cookies, you can circumvent a whole range of different online attacks and nip them in the bud before they become a real problem.

It’s best to keep your web browser as light and streamlined as possible, and the more data you save in your browser the greater the chance that someone will be able to steal your information. Also consider that you should frequently clear your history as well. This provides a veritable audit trail, and an attacker could use this information to see every website you have visited on the Internet.

Final Thoughts

I want to make sure you understand that no code will ever be 100% infallible. Computers are created and manufactured by humans who are anything but perfect, and mistakes are always made. That is to say you run the risk of being attacked every time you fire up your computer and open your web browser – regardless of whether or not you have implemented these security practices.

In fact, they say that the most secure computing system is one that doesn’t have the ability to connect to the Internet at all. However, implementing these security measures will make it much more difficult for an attacker to successfully compromise your computer. Think of using these security practices in the same light as risk aversion. For example, if someone is a vegetarian their whole life
and they abstain from alcohol and smoking, the chance that they will develop a chronic or life-threatening disease is slim to none.

Though it is still possible, their lifestyle choices severely reduce their risk of disease. Likewise, implementing these security procedures works in much the same way. The ugly truth is that operating systems and websites contain flaws and errors that can be exploited by hackers. It’s just a fact of life. But by strengthening your security, you make it much more difficult – if not impossible in some cases – for an attacker to successfully hack into your computer.