TRICKS HACKERS USE TO ACCESS AND STEAL YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

Your Facebook profile is like a diary, photo album and confession booth rolled into one — so you really wouldn’t want anyone to get access to it.Now a cyber security expert has claimed hackers could access victims’ accounts by doing little more than finding out their old phone number.

Facebook offers users the chance to recover access to their account if they forget their password by typing in their phone number, getting a code texted to their phone and then resetting the password.

But if someone has a new phone number and has failed to unlink their old one from their Facebook account, hackers could use the social network’s clever security system to gain access to victims’ profiles.

In a Medium post, young tech expert James Martindale wrote: “Your Facebook account is a treasure trove worth a good chunk of money.”Martindale claimed he was able to access a stranger’s account by simply typing in one of his old phone numbers, which are often recycled and handed to new owners when they fall out of use.

Facebook lets you search for people who have associated numbers with their accounts.
All hackers would need to do is buy a new phone number and then hope the person who used to own it had not changed the phone number linked to their Facebook profile.

They could then click the forgotten password option when trying to log into their victim’s account and Facebook’s security mechanism would send them a text allowing the hacker to the account password and get inside.

Once they have access, they could access all your secrets and begin scamming your chums.Last year, one scammer claimed to have used a fake ID to crack into a male victims’ Facebook account and then bombard his fiance with lewd pictures.

But there is also big money available to people who hack into social media profiles.

Martindale claimed that hackers could flog cracked Facebook account for more than $50 a pop, meaning a determined crook could potentially earn a lot of dosh if they found enough people to target.

The best way to protect yourself is to only associate your Facebook account with your very latest number.

Sources :

Scmagazine

PEOPLE WHO HACK THE HACKERS AND WHY THEY DO IT

       

Attacks, where hundreds to hundreds of thousands of otherwise innocent computers and devices can be directed to attack one targeted victim, can be devastatingly hard to stop — not just for me, but for anyoneThe sustained flood of malicious network traffic consisting of billions of unwanted digital bits can knock all but the biggest and richest companies (think Google) off the internet.Once they start, the victim (in this case, me) can be kicked off the internet for several days.

Rogue hackers aren't such a threat,this is not to say that all malicious hackers are dumb. That’s not the case. It’s just that the vast majority aren’t overly bright; they are average. In a given year, it will be seen that maybe one or two smart hackers do things that no one else has ever done before.They simply use tools, techniques and services that other smarter hackers previously created. Far from being the mythic hackers that Hollywood celebrates, most are regular, run-of-mill rubes who couldn’t code an emoji icon.

If you want to meet a really smart hacker, talk to a cybersecurity defender. They have to be experts in their technology and able to figure out how to stop all the threats that are trying to take it down. They are the hidden Henry Fords and Einsteins of our digital society. While the media is portraying rogue hackers as the smarter element, the defenders are tightening the net and helping to stop and arrest more of them than ever.

And, as I said before, you don't have to be smart to be a successful hacker. Any kid or crime syndicate can do it. All you need to know is a few tricks of the trade.

The secret of hacking
The secret to hacking is there is no secret. Hacking is like any other trade, like a plumber or electrician, once you learn a few tools and techniques, the rest is just practice and perseverance. Most hackers find missing software patches, misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, or social engineer the victim if it works once, it works a thousand times.It’s so easy and works so regularly that most professional penetration testers (i.e., people paid to do legal hacking) quit after a few years because they no longer find it challenging.

There’s no official count of hackers in the world, but the number is easily in the upper tens of thousands.Luckily, most of them are on the good side.A critical mass is starting to build and within the next decade online cybercriminals will likely to become as rare as traditional bank robbers. They will still exist, but there will be far fewer of them and they will be far more likely to be identified and prosecuted.The people who hack the hackers

The people who fight hackers and their malware creations cover the gambit of computer security jobs, including penetration testers, fixers, policy makers, educators, product developers, security reviewers, writers, cryptographers, privacy advocates, securers, threat modelers, and other computer security wonks in all fields.

        

HACKERS SAY THEY DEMAND 50,000$ RANSOM FOR STOLEN DATA

A pair of malicious hackers say they
demanded that Bell pay a $50,000 US
ransom to prevent stolen customer data from being shared online, according to a person claiming responsibility for the theft.

The breach is the latest in a string of high- profile malicious hacks that have held large corporations' data for ransom. In April, a person or group who went by the name "thedarkoverlord" leaked the latest season of the Netflix TV series Orange Is the New Black , more than a month before its premiere, after the streaming service declined to pay up.

Bell previously told customers that "there is no indication that any financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed."
The pair demanded Bell send $50,000 US in bitcoin within 14 days of the email's receipt. In exchange, they claimed they would honour a signed contract promising "video and cryptographical evidence" of the data being "securely deleted."

Some hackers will report vulnerabilities they find to companies — sometimes in exchange for payment, or for altruistic reasons — but try to avoid doing things that might be deemed illegal, such as taking user data.The Bell breach does not appear to be one of those cases, as exodus says their actions were "highly financially motivated."