Raj Agrawal

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You are here: Home / Technology / What Is Hacking? How To Not Be A Victim?

What Is Hacking? How To Not Be A Victim?

August 25, 2009 by Raj Agrawal 5 Comments

A guide to keep away from online thieves

First of all, what is hacking? In computer language, hacking is the art of detecting the loop hole in the security system of a computer and exploiting that loop hole to intrude in the main system. The intention may be evil or may even be a step to find and fix the vulnerabilities.

A computer system is designed to have a strong security mechanism but due to limitations of human intelligence, the security mechanism is not a perfect one. It is next to impossible to actually produce a software which is non-hackable. If you compare the computers with us humans, you will be astounded that every detailed functioning in a computer is very similar to what humans work like. After all it is our imagination and our way of life style that led us to make computers real. The important difference is that, the the digital world possess intelligence with no emotions and humans possess both! And so, it’s ‘our vulnerabilities’ that make us design a strong but, a vulnerable computer system. Computers are our legacy!

Hacker!

There are some simple ways to protect your computer system from many types of network intrusions and data thefts.

  • Never open e-mails from unknown/untrusted senders. Some bad e-mails contain malicious codes that are crafted to install on your computer to damage and/ or steal your personal information.
  • Avoid clicking on unknown links sent to you on social networking sites as they bear the same reason as the first one.
  • Buy a copy of Bit defender Internet Security Suite for greater security. Avoid using AntiVir, Dr.WEB, NOD, Macffee and Norton. They are totally unreliable. Use Comodo Firewall.
  • If you are a Windows user and you don’t use the LAN sharing feature, tweak the services and  turn off the NET BIOS option for better security and speed.
  • For online transactions, make sure that the websites where you are performing the transactions are https enabled. For example, you should use https://paypal.com and not http://paypal.com. The ‘https‘ is preferred for enhanced security and is always used by legitimate websites concerned with e-commerce.
  • If the firewall alerts you regarding an incoming connection, if you are unsure of who and why it is, never accept it.
  • While registering on any website, always prefer setting pass-phrases that exceed 14 characters.
  • If you are an advanced user, effectively enhance your computer security with Harden IT and Secure IT.

These recommendations are not all the things to keep away every hacker but, some simple steps to perform on a system that will protect the user from most of the online thieves and their hacking attempts.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: security

About Raj Agrawal

A professional Mobile Software Engineer by profession, an M.C.A and M.C.P by qualification. A guitar hobbyist and an appreciator of Indian classical, folk, metal and baroque music.

Comments

  1. Kennith Bouy says

    October 3, 2010 at 1:52 PM

    You guys are awesome, found you on Yahoo. Just had to let you know that you are awesome for sharing this.

    Reply
  2. Abhishek@techdistinct says

    February 5, 2011 at 7:24 PM

    I was not knowing about the net BIOS option.
    Thanks Raj for sharing ..

    Reply
    • Raj Agrawal says

      February 6, 2011 at 4:56 AM

      You are welcome πŸ˜‰

      Reply
  3. Gireesh says

    April 25, 2011 at 10:33 AM

    Nice post Raj. However, pass-phrases are stronger but easy to remember than pass-words, right? Read an interesting post here http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/07/passwords-vs-pass-phrases.html

    Reply
    • Raj Agrawal says

      April 25, 2011 at 11:16 AM

      Hey Gireesh, thanks for sharing the link. Precisely, pass-phrases are easily better than the conventional habit of using pass-words as they are easier to remember and way more harder to crack. At the end of the day, it’s about increasing the number of keystrokes and using characters that reduce the probability of guessing the pass-codes. This is why pass-phrases are a better deal.

      What i suggested the readers with this post, is to prefer setting ‘more than’ 14 character keystrokes while framing their pass-codes. The post meant the same thing, rather the term “pass-word” was incorrect, my bad.

      Thanks for pointing it out. I’ve now fixed the sentence. πŸ˜‰

      Reply

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