Have You Been Breached?

a man is working on a laptop with a system hack

Most people are aware that anyone could become a victim of data breaches. Unfortunately, many people did not know that information can be stolen without the victim even knowing. A hacker can penetrate into one’s network and retrieve personal information all while the affected person has no idea. There are various ways to protect yourself and your company against attackers. But what happens if your information was stolen and what can hackers do with your information?

The Importance of Your Data

No matter what kind of business you run or the size of your company, the data you have is extremely valuable and may contain sensitive information. However, information can be hacked and sold to the highest bidder on the dark web. Data stolen can be personal information of employees or may contain important financial matters. Hackers attempt to retrieve any and all information in hopes to sell it for a considerable amount of money.

Password Managers Can Help

Password managers, such as LastPass, Bitwarden, and 1Password help create strong passwords and may store these passwords for whenever you need them. They can alert users if an attacker has stolen a password kept in its databases. It is important to note that not all password managers have this feature. Additionally, this feature may come with a price. Therefore, interested users should conduct additional research on what capabilities various password managers have and the costs.

Credit Monitoring Agencies

Similar to bank monitoring services that alert you of possible fraudulent charges made on your card, the goal of credit monitoring agencies is to keep track of your credit and of potential fraud that may appear on credit reports. Hackers may attempt to use one’s personal information to open new lines of credit. Thus, checking your credit history for accounts and any possible credit cards can be one way to ensure your personal information has not been stolen. Credit monitoring services, such as Experian and CreditWise can provide users with notifications of possible fraud. This will assist them in protecting their personal information. 

Have I Been Pwned

Troy Hunt, a security expert, developed a tool known as Have I Been Pwned. It allows you to search through various data breaches to see if your email address or phone number has been leaked online. It’s a valuable resource to have in order to determine if you may have possibly been involved in a data breach.

The most effective way to keep hackers from utilizing your personal information is by taking preventative measures now. 4 Corner IT can assist in protecting you and your business against attackers by implementing various security solutions designed to keep others away from your network and store sensitive information in a secure manner. 

To learn more about security for your company, reach out to us at 954.474.2204.

Contact Us Today!

Differences Between Hollywood Hackers and the Real Deal

hackers

In many television shows and movies today, hackers and cybercriminals take the form of evil villains or mischievous antiheroes. While this characterization is undoubtedly fun to watch, they don’t quite get the facts right. Most of the computing constructs demonstrated in entertainment don’t actually exist in real life. This week, let’s discuss what real-life hackers are like, and how they’re different from your favorite computer genius characters.

Hacking Isn’t So Up Tempo

In entertainment, hacking is often portrayed as a fast-paced exercise. Typically, the hacker completes their job in minutes, if not seconds, while exciting music races in the background. The actual work that the, always handsome, hacker is doing consists of typing about 20 lines of code with no mistakes, having a quick revelation as the music swells, and finishing with a flourish of key pressing that results in the victim’s computer crashing or, even more ludicrous, spontaneously combusting. 

While not all television and movie representations are this dramatic, they’re usually still much faster than actual hacking.

Real hacking takes hours, if not more, and isn’t nearly as easy as entertainment makes it seem. Hackers are sometimes sitting in front of their computers for long periods of time reading hundreds of lines of code to try and find some vulnerability. 

Real Hacking Wouldn’t be Fun to Watch

The reason most entertainment platforms depict hacking this way is that the real stuff is…actually pretty boring. This characterization of the insanely smart and good-looking techy hacker that can make technology do anything they want it to is far from the truth. Hackers are usually just average people, or sometimes loners, that often work in a boring office setting to find cracks in networks so they can extract data. 

Real hackers often use automated tools to send out phishing emails, crack passwords, or create scams that fool users into giving them access to their information. None of which would be enjoyable to watch on television. 

Also, a hacker’s goal is usually to collect sensitive information or, at most, install malware on your device. The idea that with a few clicks a hacker could crash your computer or make it explode is absolutely preposterous. 

Why It’s Important to Know the Difference

You may be thinking, “but it’s just entertainment! Why do we care what real hackers do?”. Well, let’s face it, these acts are illegal, and glorifying them the way so many movies and television shows can make it seem like hacking is an acceptable or even cool thing to do. It’s not. Hacking is a crime and these unrealistic characterizations of hackers could give people the wrong impression about the reality of cybercriminals. 

So, should Hollywood change how they portray hackers in entertainment? Not necessarily. It’s true that these depictions of hackers are much more interesting to watch. However, it’s important to know that Hollywood hackers aren’t real and shouldn’t be taken seriously. If anything, view them as comic relief for how ridiculous they are.

What are your thoughts on hackers in movies and television? Do you have a favorite Hollywood hacker? Leave your comments below and check back soon for more great technology content!

Contact Us Today!

Ads Can Carry Malicious Code

malware malicious code

Sometimes you might be browsing the Internet and come across an advertisement for free downloads of Windows applications. Obviously, this is too good to be true, and hackers tend to exploit advertisements to spread their malicious code across devices. Malvertising is used to deliver various types of threats, all of which can cause considerable harm to unprepared businesses. 

The malvertisement threat in question is a new campaign targeting users in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Nigeria. It aims to steal information like usernames, passwords, and other sensitive credentials. 

Types of Malicious Code

ZDNet reports that this new malvertising campaign—called Magnat by Cisco Talos—spreads a malicious browser extension using Trojan malware. Thus, providing a backdoor entrance to the user’s device. This new, as-yet-undocumented threat appears to be custom-built over the past several years. Other types of malware used in this campaign include a password stealer. This is installed on the user’s device through the use of the backdoor. 

The browser extension (also a keylogger) and the password stealer are standard fare for threats. However, the backdoor, called MagnatBackdoor, is a special type that allows attacks to gain remote control over a PC without detection. It also adds a new user to the device and installs keyloggers, as well as other malware. Thus, enabling the attacker to steal sensitive information. Researchers believe that the threat works like a banking trojan with the primary aim being to steal credentials for individual sale on the Dark Web. Of course, the credentials could also be used by the attackers, too. 

 Malware Distributuion

This malware is distributed primarily through advertisements that link to malicious file downloads, with the big kicker being that these adverts advertise popular software applications. While there is reason to be concerned about this campaign, it’s also important to know that it’s nothing new. These threats are commonplace and security researchers, as well as security professionals in the field like ourselves, fully understand how to keep your devices as safe as possible. 

 

4 Corner IT wants to help your business keep itself safe from these types of threats (and more). If you need some pointers on how to keep your employees from clicking on these advertisements, we can provide training, as well! To learn more, reach out to us at 954-474-2204. 

Contact Us Today and Check Out Our Blog!

How Prevent Your Network from Being Sold By Hackers

Locked computer ransomware with hands holding money and key flat vector illustration. Network Sold by Hackers

Believe it or not, your organization’s network can be sold by hackers under the right circumstances. This is the unfortunate reality that we live in. Thus, the commoditization of data and network access has become a real problem. According to a study from KELA, hackers can sell access to compromised networks for a pittance compared to the amount of work you have invested in building your business. If you have your business’s network sold by hackers, it could create a snowball effect. This includes events that can lead to your business’s downfall. Therefore, you must do everything in your power to protect your network and prevent this from happening.

This report from KELA followed Initial Access Brokers. This term is used to describe threats that sell access to compromised network infrastructures. Additionally, these threats are big players in the world of cybercrime. They can effectively facilitate some of the most devastating threats out there, including ransomware and remote access threats. The report examined one full year of listings by Initial Access Brokers to discover how much value can be assigned to this type of network access.

It is quite shocking to see just how little value is associated with access to your network. Out of the 1,000 listings, KELA found that the average price of network access credentials was about $5,400. The median price being around $1,000. Other trends examined included the average price of credentials, as well as information on industries affected and countries affected. The top countries affected were the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Additionally, top industries affected included manufacturing, education, IT, banking/financial, government, and healthcare.

Just take a moment to imagine how much chaos someone could inject into your business simply by purchasing access to your infrastructure. All it takes is a small investment and access to a VPN for someone to start causing some real trouble for your business. There are quite a few ways that you can minimize the damage done through these methods, including the following:

  • Implement comprehensive security measures

    In terms of sheer security, we recommend unified threat management, or UTM, to handle most of the threats your business could face. This all-in-one solution includes security measures such as a firewall, antivirus, content filter, and spam blocker to minimize exposure to threats.

  • Monitor your network traffic

    If you keep track of who logs onto your network, when, and where they are logging in from, you’ll have a greater chance of identifying suspicious traffic patterns.

  • Implement multi-factor authentication

    Password security is still important, but not nearly as important as having additional measures in place. Multi-factor authentication can help make sure that people logging into your network are who they say they are.

  • Take regular backups of your infrastructure

    You never want to use your data backup, but having it never hurts, and it will give you a nuclear option in the event that someone does manage to gain unauthorized access to your network.

If you have your business’s network sold by hackers, it can damage your business’s entire operations. To learn more about how you can protect your business, reach out to us at (954) 474-2204.

350,000+ Personal Data Exposed After Preen.Me Attack

350000 personal data exposed after preenme attack

It’s the rare business that can survive without marketing and social media efforts, so when a social media marketing company like Preen.Me comes under a cyber attack, it invariably adversely affects many, many interested parties. And with Preen.Me’s recent hack, that’s exactly what happened. Over 100,000 social media influencers have had their personal data stolen because of their connection to Preen.Me. In addition, over 250,000 social media users have had their personal data exposed on a deep web hacking forum from their use of ByteSizedBeauty, a Preen.Me application.

While Preen.Me primarily focuses their marketing efforts on beauty-related content, meaning many other types of businesses were spared, that does not provide any comfort to those whose primary business is related to personal care. Preen.Me boasts big-name customers such as Unilever, Revlon, St. Ives, and Neutrogena, who in turn interact with large customer bases. 

In this post, we will outline how the attack was discovered, the data involved, and discuss the level of sophistication that hackers and data thieves can employ in their efforts to exploit, steal from, and harass innocent parties.

The Discovery  

RBS, a world-renowned leader in cyber security, first discovered the Preen.Me leak on June 6, 2020 after they noted a known threat actor posting a message on a deep web forum about their recent hacking efforts. The attack was confirmed by the actor on the same day when they shared stolen information from 250 beauty influencers on PasteBin. PasteBin is a content hosting website service that allows users to store text on their site for set periods of time. The hacker also threatened to release the personal information of 100,000 records he/she acquired. However, as of this date those records do not seem to have been released.

The Data at Risk 

The affected clients of Preen.Me are social media influencers involved in the beauty industry. Of course, their social media efforts lead them to collect information about their followers as well. Information from both side of the equation were affected, with the threat actor exposing personal information of the media influencers such as home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, names, and social media links. In addition, some of these social media influencers have over a half million followers, potentially exposing their information as well.  

Further Exploitation

It wasn’t enough to steal such a large amount of data to potentially hold Preen.Me for a ransom amount. On June 8th, the hacker released detailed information of the over 250,000 users of Preen.Me’s application, ByteSizedBeauty. The details include their Facebook name, ID, URL, and friend’s list, along with their Twitter ID and name. Personal information was also leaked, including their email address(es), date of birth, home address, eye color, and skin tone. 

Also found in the stolen database dump, were 100,000 user authentication tokens for social media, along with a small number of possible password hashes, and a data table consisting of over 250,000 records containing user names, email addresses, customer names, and auto-generated passwords. 

Doxing so many users of Preen.Me’s marketing tools and applications leaves all of them exposed to significant issues with spam, harassment, and especially identity theft. It remains to be seen if the hacker has accomplished their entire “mission” or if they are planning to further exploit Preen.Me and/or their clients. 

A Cautionary Tale 

Preen.Me’s recent attack is a cautionary tale for every other entity that uses the world wide web. Hackers can take very personal information and hold it for ransom, or they can release it on the dark web and allow others to commit further criminal acts against innocent affected parties. Organizations must take technology security seriously and understand their security efforts are not just protecting their own data, but the private data of clients who entrust them oftentimes with very personal information.

If you would like to know more about how to protect your business and the sensitive data of your clients from cyber hackers, please contact us.