Page 78 - BBC Knowledge - October 2017 IN

Science
Technology
is growing massively. We analyse a million Hackers targeted
objects [of malicious code] per day in our virus Emmanuel Macron
lab, and more than 60 per cent of our detections just 48 hours before
French voters were
are of code that has never seen before.” due to go to the
polls – he still beat
CYBER CRIME his rival Marine
Such a proliferation of threats is undeniably Le Pen to become
concerning, but also hard to grasp. One reason president of France
the subject of hacking can feel so nebulous
is that the term covers a multitude of sins.
Cybercrime attacks can be serious offences
such as theft, extortion, espionage, libel or
fraud, but they can also be low-level nuisance
behaviour. Where this comparison with real-
world crime differs is that every hack and
every leak can feed into greater crimes.
For example, stolen user data can be bundled
up and traded on the dark web (the dark web
refers to encrypted sites that cannot be found
using standard browsers or search engines),
while compromised machines join sprawling
botnets to be unwittingly used in bringing
down large targets.
Let’s take a look at the NHS ransomare attack
as an example. It was carried out using tools
leaked online by nefarious group the Shadow
Brokers. The tools were recognised by the Stolen user data is
international security community as hailing
from the NSA’s Equation Group cyberwarfare bundled up and traded
team. They contained a number of ‘zero-day
exploits’, which could be used to gain access on the dark web, while
to computers running Microsoft operating
systems from Windows 2000 to Windows 8. compromised machines
The toolkit – known as Eternal Blue – exposed
a multitude of vulnerabilities and made it join sprawling botnets
child’s play for the perpetrators to spread
the WannaCry ransomware around the world. to be unwittingly used
Where it gets murkier is when you start to
consider the motive for the WannaCry attack. PHOTOS: GETTY X2 in bringing down large
It would seem to be financial, yet relatively
little cash was paid out – just $1,26,000 targets
worldwide (this was easy to track, thanks to

/TYPES

OF HACK VIRUSES AND DDOS

WORMS Short for distributed denial of service,
Do not know your Most malware tends to be either a virus or a DDOS attack is basic yet effective.
It works on the principle that,
Trojan from your a worm. The difference comes down to if a website’s DNS server can be overwhelmed by
worm? Brush up on the software’s ability to propagate. Like traffic requests, the site will crash. Hackers run PHOTOS: NASA X6
their biological namesakes, computer
your hacker lingo here viruses require a host body, whereas botnets – networks of zombie computers or devices
worms can spread from one machine to – to besiege a server from multiple fronts
the next unaided. simultaneously.
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OCTOBER 2017