Whenever you hear of hacking somewhere, what comes to your mind first? Someone sitting in front of a huge PC coding, the codes of different colors are rising very fast from the bottom to the top.! But you have to keep in mind that the whole point of hacking is password-centric, now if someone finds out your password from your phone, they don't have to do so much, you will be a victim of hacking without any action from the hacker.
And hackers use different methods to hack or crack this password. Moreover, new hacking methods are constantly being created for the benefit of technology. Today we will discuss eight methods to hack such passwords.
1. Dictionary Hack
The common and most common hacking method is Dictionary Hack. This method has been used since the beginning of hacking. The question that may come to your mind is why the name of the dictionary? This hacking method dictionary tries to match all the words in a dictionary. However, this dictionary is not a general dictionary to find our words, it is a password dictionary.
A password dictionary is made up of millions of possible passwords. It can be a text file, where users have a huge list of passwords that are commonly used, such as possible passwords can be, 12345678, Password, i love u, john12345, etc.
Below is a list of some of the leaked passwords for 2020,
Advantages: Passwords come out easily without any complicated process.
Disadvantages: Comparatively strong passwords are secure.
Ways to stay safe: To stay safe with this method, you need to create a password that no one can imagine. Use Symbol in the password. Use different passwords on different websites. If you have trouble remembering all the passwords, use the password manager.
2. Brute Force
This method is somewhat similar to Dictionary Hack. Here we try to guess the password with all possible character combinations, such as Upper Case, Lower Case, Symbol etc.
In the Brute Force method, initially complex passwords are applied by trying with simple passwords, such as 1q2w3e4r5t, zxcvbnm, qwertyuiop etc.
Advantages: Sometimes complex passwords can be cracked using different theories.
Disadvantages: Complex passwords take a lot of time based on combinations and numbers. Sometimes it is very difficult to crack the password if there are symbols like পড়ে, &, {,] in the password.
Ways to stay safe: To stay safe from this method, always use different combinations of Upper Case, Lower Case, Symbol. Try to keep the password as long as possible.
3. Phishing
Phishing is the easiest and least laborious hacking method for hackers! Do your own thing to get your password to the hacker. Many do not call this method hacking but sometimes its horror or effectiveness surpasses any other hacking.
In this method, the hacker will first send an email to your email by spoofing the email of a certain person of an organization. You may enter this link as if it were real mail. That link may look like a real website, like Facebook, Gmail, PayPal or other important websites. If you enter your username or password on those websites by mistake, it will go to the hacker.
The number of such spam emails sent every day is very high. . According to Kaspersky, the number of such mails sent from January to June 2020 was 92 million.
In April of this year, Google said it blocked 17 million COVID-19 spam emails a day during the lockdown. And most of these emails were sent in the name of government, and various health organizations.
Advantages: In this hacking method, hackers can get the User Name, Password or all the credit card information directly from the users.
Disadvantages : Various email providers, including Google, are constantly working to filter out spam emails. The database is constantly being updated.
Ways to stay safe: To be safe from this hacking, your awareness is great. Before entering any link in the email, be sure to check the sender mail, to see if it is actually a verified address.
4. Social Engineering
Social Engineering is a real life hacking method outside the computer screen. Here the direct target is the various executives of any company or organization. A hacker can call a person who is responsible for a specific rule of a particular company. Hackers can ask for important passwords by identifying themselves as the company's tech support team. The security of the organization can be broken only when the employee mispronounces the specific password.
This method, which has been around for a long time, is still being used equally. Not only do hackers always ask for a direct password by phone, they can also collect other important information through this Social Engineering method.
Advantages: In this method, skilled hackers can collect company sensitive and various important information without any kind of password cracking.
Disadvantages: Hacking in this method often fails when awareness among employees increases.
How to stay safe: If you are aware of this hacking, it is possible to avoid the horrors. Raising awareness about cyber security among the employees of the organization is the only way to avoid its horrors.
5. Rainbow Table
An offline password cracking method is the Rainbow Table method. This method allows hackers to collect users' encrypted email passwords and try to decrypt them.
Passwords can usually be in a hash, such as 8f4047e3233b39e4444e1aef240e80aa. So hackers use different hash algorithms to extract these hashes. Each time a password is generated, it is matched to the original password.
Sometimes hackers buy different password combinations to extract these hashes.
Advantages: Hackers can crack certain passwords from potential passwords in a short period of time.
Disadvantages: To be successful, hackers need to have a huge Rainbow Table. And the values are limited to that table.
How to stay safe: This is a very tricky method To survive this hacking you need to avoid sites that use SHA1 or MD5 in the password hash algorithm. Moreover, always use complex combination passwords.
6. Malware/Keylogger
All social media accounts, bank numbers, credit card numbers on your PC can be at risk through malware or keylogger. It is a method where hackers insert some programs into your PC which automatically collect all your information without your knowledge and upload it to the hacker's server.
Advantages: There are thousands of malware that can be customized in different ways. Moreover, there are multiple ways to inject malware into specific PCs. It can collect various private data and login information.
Disadvantages: If the PC has a good antivirus or Windows Defender active, the malware is quarantined before it starts working.
How to stay safe: Make sure you have an anti-virus or Windows Defender active on your PC. Update the antivirus regularly. Always use trusted websites to download any software. When installing software, make sure that other software or packages are being installed along with it.
7. Spidering
This hacking method is a lot like Dictionary hacking. In this method first a specific company or institute is targeted. And collects information about that company.
In this method certain programs start crawling on the internet, they collect possible word lists from search engine index company websites etc. Hacking activities are conducted by matching those lists.
Advantages: This method allows hackers to seize the accounts of various high ranking officials.
Disadvantages: This method can be a complete failure if the security of the organization is tightly configured.
How to stay safe: As always, use different passwords for different websites. Never go for one of personal, organizational passwords.
8. Shoulder Surfing
This is not hacking but this method is also defined as password cracking method. This is a kind of observation! Suppose someone else noticed it when you typed the password. Strange as it may sound, this method is also hacking.
Advantages: This method of hacking is possible even if you do not have any kind of hacking knowledge.
Disadvantages: You have to set specific targets in advance , most of the time you can't succeed.
How to stay safe: Keep in mind that your password can be stolen in this way. If you type a password in a public place, you must type the password behind the keyboard. Save passwords in secure or trusted browsers without having to repeat them.
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