• Black Hat Hacking:Threat for Information Technology

UNETHICAL EXPLOITATION OF DATA

  

"Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality." -Albert Schweitzer

We are living in the 21st century an era of technological advancement and digital world. Almost every other work at hand becomes simple and quick when appropriate technology is involved. It becomes easy for people of every age group to utilize this innovation in all sorts of tasks whether to spend free time or any sort of work. The usage of mobile phones is a good example of additive technology. Also, cyberspace or the internet as we call it, has become a center of attention to governments, private sectors and or individuals. There would be hardly any place where the use of the internet is not there. 

However, increased dependence on internet technology is leading towards the increase in cybercrimes such as pornography, copyright infringement, financial theft, internet fraud, phishing, cyber warfare, hacking, defamation, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, etc. All these issues have led to a fear in the minds of the users that their personal information might not be secure and accessed in the wrong way by an unknown person. 

Every coin has two sides similarly the new digital world has its own pros and cons and there are many unethical people out there to misuse the technology. 

So here we focus mainly on the term BLACK HAT HACKING which is another name of unethical hacking that one must be aware of. A black hat hacker is a person who finds computer vulnerabilities and exploits them for personal gain and vengeful reasons which are totally illegal. There are two more types of hackers namely white-hat hacker and grey hat hacker.

Hacking is an activity where a person gains unauthorized access to one’s system to have knowledge about the information stored in it. 

A person who hacks a system is termed as ‘Hacker’. 

Hackers may do it for their personal interests or the interest of the society at their own will. Hacking is legal if it is done for the interest of the society under the existing laws, but it is illegal if done otherwise. It is said that the world has become a global village where everything is available online, every business transaction and work is on a digital platform. Various social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp helps us to interact with people all around the world. 

But do you think our data is safe and secure on such a platform where cybercrime is a major problem and our data is unethically accessed by unknown people?

Regarding the same, I would like to quote a recent example of one the richest businessman JEFF BEZOS, the CEO of Amazon whose phone got hacked by the Prince of Saudi Arabia on 22nd January 2019.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was targeted and successfully hacked through WhatsApp from Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a new report from The Guardian. Citing the results of digital forensic analysis, The Guardian says the hack, which took place in May 2018, targeted unknown contents on Bezos’ personal cellphone.

According to the report, Bezos and the Saudi prince were having a friendly exchange over WhatsApp when the crown prince’s account sent a mysterious video file, after which Bezos’ device was compromised and large amounts of data were transferred off the phone, The Guardian reports. A documentary titled The Dissident which premieres on Friday says that the video sent to Bezos’ phone took advantage of a WhatsApp vulnerability discovered in May 2018 to inject Pegasus spyware, The Washington Post reports. READ MORE.

This is one of the greatest and recent news that makes me believe that no matter how many precautions we take to make our data safe and secure, it can still be hacked. It is said if the phone of CEO of Amazon can be hacked,then we are just ordinary people!

Make sure you share your point of view in the comment section below.

धन्यवाद आपका

Prabhat Singh