It’s Raining Cats, Dogs And Malware

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You can rest assured that the cyber crime’s hand is a long one with surprisingly skillful fingers. When it comes to the modern day hackers you simply cannot exaggerate. However, this one is a little bit hard to swallow without the bitterness, even for the most pessimistic IT security pessimists.

We have completely neglected what is happening above our heads. The impressive army of weather satellites flies around carelessly and without the proper cyber defense on the ground. Yes, you heard that one correctly. Potential troubles in the sky may have solid ground origins and causes.

You may ask yourself, who in the world would try to hack the IT infrastructure of the weather satellites? And why? Better think twice. These satellites can come in handy for the spying purposes. You can do some spying and later offer your findings for a nice price. Does this one sound like a good hacker’s plan?

What can we do about it? Well, there is so much to do it. We should begin by paying some additional and absolutely necessary IT security attention in this field. You cannot control both bad weather and bad hackers, but you can certainly predict their actions. IT and weather security are all about proper predictions. Right?

Hackers Do Care About The Healthcare

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Malware is a disease, call a doctor. Under some other circumstances this could have been a nice slogan for some IT security service provider. However, we are eager to discuss something else with you. Why, all of a sudden, the hackers have become so healthcare systems focused?

Maybe, they understand that the health comes first and business second? No, it is not a time for jokes. Yes, it can be that simple. The hackers are.educated fools with the money on their minds. They want to get the most in exchange for their invested money, time and efforts. Very rational indeed.

Now, we can understand their logic and motives with this one. The healthcare data centers are the endless seas of opportunities for hackers. Each healthcare system is an El Dorado of personal data. Just imagine what you can do in the black data market with millions and millions of personal data?

In order to avoid serious medical conditions of healthcare users, who can really get ill when they found out about hacking of their personal data, something needs to be done for real. These systems require serious and efficient IT security therapies for a long and healthy life of all of us. Cheers.

About The Hackers’ Motivation

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Yes, let us ask some questions about the hackers’ motivation. What is in their hearts and minds that made them to do the things they do on a daily basis? We definitely need to know more about our worst cyber enemies in order to defeat them successfully. So, what do we actually know about their motives?

It may come as a surprise, but it seems that the excitement is the main motivation engine for all hackers in more than 50% of all known cases. It is a sad thing to witness so many promising IT careers being destroyed for a little fun and false sense of greatness. What is happening with the position number two?

Well, the hacker’s moral compass takes up to 30% of the entire motivational pie. In some cases, they really believe that what they are doing is justified and for the common good. And finally, the financial factor takes what is left of all remaining percentages in this story. Less than 20%.

So, what is the moral of this story? If we can provide an alternative for the excitement and ensure the sense of rightfulness for hackers, we can solve more than 80% of all cyber attacks before they even appear. Do not blink, and start to think how we can achieve this goal. Hack the hackers’ hearts and minds.

The Malware Human Rights

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The things are getting serious with hacking, aren’t they? Apparently, so serious that even The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has to intervene. What happened? It seems that the Latvian creator of the Gozi Trojan, which is specially designed to attack banks, thought he will face some unfair treatment by the US Justice Department.

Unlucky for him, in its opinion the ECHR sent a message that Gozi’s father has to answer for his wrongdoings, and that a legal treatment across the ocean will be just fine in this case. This was his last chance to prevent the extradition to the USA, and it has failed.

This obviously talented 29 year old hacker has every right to fight his legal battles. Why? Well, he is facing a 67 years of imprisonment penalty in the USA. You can do the math, can’t you? In other words, this a lifetime sentence. And, the message is strong. Who will dare to attack the US banks after this one?

Maybe, this Latvian hacker can make some kind of a deal with the US government. He can become the US version of Nikita. Why not? In exchange for his freedom he can provide training or even his own personal hacking services to the government. Who knows? He knows too much to work in the prison’s library. Right?

Hackers Love Superman Too

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The guys from the McAfee have a sharp expert IT security eye for all intriguing things taking place in the background, or to be a little bit more precise in the backstage. So, what do they have for us this time? They came up with a Superman warning. What are we talking about?

Well, it seems that hackers are using some of the most popular superheroes to camouflage their malicious links. If you do not think twice before you click on a certain link associated with your favorite superhero, there is a chance that you make unwanted friendship with some malware or Trojan.

These superheroes may fly and have all kinds of super-powers. However, when it comes to the cyber space there are quite helpless. As soon as you experience a close encounter with some malware or Trojan you need to call heroes of a different kind. Your IT security experts come for a rescue.

It is a sad thing that flawless Superman’s reputation has been violated in such a shameless manner. To make things even worse for us movie fans the upcoming saga Superman vs Batman is very likely to be misused in a similar way. Oh dear, is there something sacred to these villains hackers?

How To Hack Your Hotel Room?

 

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Here is one hot topic literally. You are already there or planning to hit the road to a nice looking beach. Here is the catch. With a little bit of patience and nothing more than an iPad 2 you can take control over your hotel room. We are talking about the real control, including all the services your hotel room has to offer, such as cooling system, lights, TV, and others. You name it, you can have it.

However, there is also some bad news. Someone else other than yourself can easily hack your hotel room. Or, as a matter of fact the entire hotel. You can easily end up paying someone else’s hotel bills. Or, even worse, you can be forced to look for another hotel as soon as you arrive. According to the hotel books and computers everything is as it should be, but only you know that is not true.

It seems that the hotel industry has to update itself, as soon as possible. The times when hotel robbers took their tools with them are long gone. Nowadays, you do not have to get your hands dirty in order to rob a hotel. All you have to do is to play smart and use your smartphone or tablet. In this matter, the sky is the only limit you face while you walk down the virtual hotel lobbies.

Well, it is about time for prestigious hotels make some additional investments for appropriate software. It is not enough to have the top booking software. What about the security of hotel in the first place and its guests? The last thing you need is some new virtual hotel’s manager with the dishonest intentions to take over the control. The IT room service is at your door.

Hackers Hollywood

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How real and accurate are the Hollywood movies about hackers and hacking? What is your favorite one? Here are some interesting choices and recommendations mentioned by Dark Reading, which specializes for the security issues and news. It is not only enough to mention hacking, the whole movie has to be about it.

Disney’s Tron and Tron Legacy were definitely all about it. Although, we have to add, this was rather a simplified and romantic story about cyber pirates of the modern age. There is one move worth of our attention in this matter. Swordfish with John Travolta. Nevertheless, this movie was not about him at all from the IT perspective.

With all due respect to IT experts all over the world Hugh Jackman was too good looking for a hacker. You simply do not have computer gigs, who look like models. For what is worth, the timeless classic WarGames is still the number one representative for Hackers Hollywood. Its story is far from outdated, as well.

Last but not least, there are so many documentaries, which do not fit strictly into this category, but provide a nice inside view into the world of hackers. For the time being, Hollywood has some troubles of its own. They are still making a movie about online piracy, if you know what we mean.