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Hi Global Risk Community member ,

Join us next month for: Think Like a Hacker: Tactics to Identify Gaps in Your IT Security Posture on Thursday, March 16th at 1pm Eastern.

Cybersecurity is one of the largest concerns facing businesses today and hackers continuously develop diverse ways of penetrating your cybersecurity defences. Learn how to think like a hacker and protect your systems and data from cyber threats by taking proactive measures, including:

• Conducting thorou

You have surely heard of hackers, but do you really know how they work? Hackers are well known for being bad guys, though there are certainly good hackers out there too. Here’s a brief guide to help you understand how a hacker can hack:

Directions for Hacking are Easy to Come By

Hackers don’t have to look far for help, especially if they don’t know much about hacking. First is a well-known website known as Kali Linux. It has a ton of tools available for hackers, and the site features many links to

Have you ever wondered if it’s a good idea to surf the internet using a public WiFi network at the airport? It’s heavily trafficked, so it’s more likely that your information could get stolen, right? In some cases, it is safe to use public WiFi; your information isn’t always entirely at risk if you’re connecting to the airport network but there are definitely vulnerabilities. And, when at the airport, you may want to rethink the urge to plug in your phone using one of the USB charging stations n

Where should you live in the world? What Game of Thrones family are you in? What is the food that best describes your personality? All of these answers are given and found by doing quizzes on Facebook. You have surely seen them if you use Facebook, and have may have taken these quizzes, but you definitely might want to consider stopping. If you have ever used one of these quizzes, you have probably given these third-party apps permission to access some of your personal data. Not only does this a

Certified ethical hacker training is commonly denoted as the course that teaches you to break through your own or your company’s computer/s in a legitimate and official manner to find out the existent vulnerabilities and to assess the safety bearing of the target system. Certified ethical hackers use the same tools and knowledge that malicious attackers exploit and execute the indicated defensive, counteractive and protective actions to protect the system from any breach in future.

The ethical ha

Hackers can take over someone’s life in a matter of hours. Just ask Patsy Walsh.

Though she is not a tech savvy person, the grandmother of six did have a Facebook account, and that was all the hackers needed to take over her life. By using methods such as click baiting, the act of convincing someone to click on a fake link, and then gathering information, the hackers were able to use this info to get into other accounts, and eventually hacked things such as her power of attorney form, Social Secu

“Anonymous” is an activist hacking group that has recently boasted that it will engage in 30 days of cyber assaults against “all central banks,” reports an article on cnbc.com.

And their bite is as big as their bark, as this announcement came soon after several major banks around the world were struck—and Anonymous proudly claimed credit. The banks that were apparently breached by Anonymous include:

• Bangladesh Central Bank
• National Bank of Greece
• Qatar National Bank

Anonymous put up their plans on a

In a recent Wired.com expose’, they expose how the FBI has been secretly hacking civilian computers for about 20 years, but thanks to Rule 41, their ability to hack has been expanded.

Nevertheless, effective record keeping for these hacking incidents doesn’t exist. For instance, search warrants that permit hacking are issued using elusive language, and this makes it difficult to keep track of when the feds hack.

Also, it’s not required for the FBI to submit any reports to Congress that track the F

Do you shop at Amazon.com? Are you aware they have a back door through which hackers can slip in?

Let’s look at Eric’s experience with hackers and Amazon, as he recounts at medium.com/@espringe.

He received an e-mail from Amazon and contacted them to see what it was about. Amazon informed him that he had had a text-chat and sent him the transcript—which he had never been part of.

Eric explains that the hacker gave Eric’s whois.com data to Amazon. However, the whois.com data was partially false beca

When it comes to tossing into the rubbish your old computer device, out of sight means out of mind, right? Well yeah, maybe to the user. But let’s tack something onto that well-known mantra: Out of site, out of mind, into criminal’s hands.

Your discarded smartphone, laptop or what-have-you contains a goldmine for thieves—because the device’s memory card and hard drive contain valuable information about you.

Maybe your Social Security number is in there somewhere, along with credit card information

If you’re going to drone on and on about how you got hacked by a cyber thief, maybe it’s because you played with your new drone—you know, those rad little flying devices that hover via remote control over your street? Yes, they are hackable.

If you don’t have a drone, don’t be surprised if you get one as a gift this season, as Americans are spending tens and tens of millions of dollars on them.

First off, if you spot a drone, before you go, “Wow, cool, there’s a drone! Kids, come look at this!” co

You need not be a celebrity or some big wig to suffer the devastating fallout of your online images (and videos) being stolen or used without your permission.

So how does someone steal your image or use it without your permission?

Hacking

• Hacking is one way, especially if passwords are weak and the answers to security questions can easily be figured out (e.g., “Name of your first pet,” and on your Facebook page there’s a picture of you: “My very first dog, Snickers”).
• Malware can be installed on you

Bad guys hacked bad guys. Hmmm, whose side should we take?

Ashleymadison.com got hacked. This site helps and suggests married people cheat. The hack threatens millions of users, potentially revealing their credit card information, addresses, real names, pictures and content of their chat logs.

This dating site has 37 million users and is owned by Avid Life Media. Their other sites, Established Men and Cougar Life, were also hacked.

The hackers responsible call themselves The Impact Team. They objec

You’ll probably be shocked to learn that last year, thousands of cars with keyless entry technology were stolen in London, says a report from wired.com.

But fact is, the more connected a vehicle is to the cyber world, the more hackable the vehicle is—and the hack could be to steal the vehicle or hurt the owner.

Rule: Anything that’s connected, especially via WiFi can be hacked.

The article notes that recently, a Jeep Cherokee was hacked with a smartphone via its Internet-connected navigation and en

Darkode anyone? Not anymore. This underground bad hackers’ forum was recently demolished by the FBI, says a report on www.justice.gov. The dozen hackers associated with Darkode are facing criminal charges.

Though there are about 800 of such forums, Darkode was among the worst (or shall I say “best”?), presenting a serious threat to worldwide computers. Gone is Darkode’s ventures of buying, selling and trading malware, and exchanging hacking strategies—to actually carry out crimes, not just fun br

Hackers with big skills and a big ego will be drawn to Facebook and Twitter as their targets. But they’ll also target dozens of other companies, reports an article on arstechnica.com.

One group in particular stands out as the attackers, using zero-day exploits. They are known as Wild Neutron and Morpho, says the article, and have been active possibly since 2011, burrowing their way into various businesses: healthcare, pharmaceutical, technology.

It’s been speculated that the hackers want the insid

Burglars get burgled, muggers get mugged, and hackers get hacked. This includes a sophisticated ring of hackers: Hacking Team, hailing from Italy, specializing in selling hacking software to major governments.

An article on wired.com describes how a “400 gigabyte trove” went online by anonymous hackers who gutted the Hacking Team, including source code. Even their Twitter feed was hacked, and the secret hackers tweeted HT’s cracked files.

One of the exposed files apparently was a list of HT’s cust

What a disgrace: A private investigator, Eric Saldarriaga, 41, got nailed for hacking into peoples’ e-mails. He may get six months in the can. Is six months reasonable for this, though?

A recent online New York Times article quotes a prosecutor who points out that hackers could be deterred by the threat of harsh penalties—because the mind of a hacker operates with a lot of thinking, vs. the mind of someone who impulsively pulls out a gun or knife.

So what did Saldarriaga do exactly? He paid an ove

Foreign hackers, look out: Uncle Sam is out to get you. President Obama has issued an order that allows the State Department and Treasury Departments to immobilize the financial assets of anyone out-of country suspected of committing or otherwise being involved in cyber crimes against the U.S.

This order, two years in the making, covers hacking of anything. The order refers to hacking as a national emergency. Imagine if entire power grids were hacked into. Yes, a national emergency.

Another reason

The proliferation of mobile devices means that we can work or play online from almost anywhere, so it’s no surprise that public Wi-Fi networks have become more common. From hotels and coffee shops, to universities and city centers, Wi-Fi is widely available, but is connecting to these networks safe?

If you were carrying on a highly sensitive conversation on a park bench with your closest friend, would you want everyone in the immediate area to gather around and eavesdrop?

That’s essentially what h