Understanding the Mind of a Hacker

 

In the information age, hacking is the new burglary. Skilled hackers are capable of compromising your security, stealing your information, and engaging in any number of fraudulent activities from the safety of their own desk. Individuals, businesses, and even government agencies are regular targets. One of the best ways to protect your business and shore up your cyber security is to go inside the mind of a hacker. Take a look at your cyber security – as if you were trying to breach it.

Simple Errors are Easily Exploited

Just like many burglars skip houses with home security signs in the front yard, most hackers will opt for easy targets. They will pass up targets which appear to have strong, legitimate cyber security in place. By this very basic action, you can make your business significantly safer.

For example, you and your IT consultant can take steps to ensure your network can only be accessed by employees. Furthermore, as hacking becomes significantly easier with password access, require your employees to change their passwords every sixty to ninety days as a safeguard against cyber snooping. When websites ask you to include a seemingly ridiculous amount of numbers and figures in your password, their motives are pure. Passwords should be as random as possible, as those with personal significance is always riskier than something random and impersonal. If you or your employees struggle to remember longer passwords,keep track with a password management program.

Your employees should also be trained for web scamming & phishing awareness. Phishing is the act of impersonating a legitimate entity on the web in order to gain trust and personal information from a target. Hackers have become more and more talented at this, trapping many unsuspecting victims. When a popup window offers you a free iPad for the 27th time, it’s pretty easy to recognize it as a scam. However, when a perfect impersonation of a trusted website asks for your credit card information, it can easily fly under the radar.

Cyber Security Professionals are Best Equipped to Combat Hackers

DIY network security solutions are certainly helpful and may work for personal use, but as your business grows, it’s smart to enlist professional help to insulate your business from cyber threats. Hackers are innovative and crafty by nature and have learned to change methods on a daily basis. The best way to deter a hacker is to have a specialist on standby to counter his or her every move. An IT company such as Cognoscape works round-the-clock to combat hackers and shield businesses from new threats which may emerge. Cognoscape can also integrate professional deterrence strategies into your current network architecture, turning your network into a fortress.

Advancements in technology are made to make our lives easier. But each advancement presents hackers with new opportunities. Without professional insight, there might be numerous gaps in your cyber security for a hacker to exploit. We’d rather not let that happen. Drop us a line. We’d love to sit down with you to discuss all the things we can do together to keep your network safe and secure, and your business strong and prepared for the future.