Hacking has always been a major threat to computers and similar devices, whether it belongs to organizations, businesses, or individuals. The act of getting unauthorized access to a computer system or network with the intention of stealing information, digital riches, or causing harm is defined as hacking.
These attacks by hackers and their malicious software or programs attempt to make your device or network vulnerable to serious data breaches, identity theft, and major financial losses. As a regular user of devices like laptops, tabs, or smartphones, one must understand the basic and crucial facts about computer hacking to secure your devices from cyber attacks.
What is computer hacking?
Hacking is the most common type of cybercrime that involves the exploitation of computer systems and network vulnerabilities or construction gaps. The end goal of this crime is to gain illegal, unethical, and unauthorized access into a device or network to steal data or digital money either of individuals or businesses’.
According to a statistical report published in 2022, a cautionary rise in cyber-attacks has been noticed. This means no one is secure from the various types of hacking, such as –
- Malware Attacks
- SQL Injection
- DDoS Attacks
- Password Hacking
- Fishing Attacks
How to know that your system has been hacked?
There are some alerting signs that a malware-infected or hacked computer may have, which you can use to know the status of security and take preventive measures to protect your device and minimize the damage.
According to a report by Cybersecurity Ventures, financial loss due to cybercrime could reach 10.5 trillion dollars by the year 2025. (https://www.biolighttechnologies.com) This cost includes potential data damage, intellectual property theft, destruction of data, monetary fraud, and many others.
The below-mentioned signs can indicate a cyber threat in your computer or device –
Unusual network activity
One of the first signs of a hacked device is the possibility of unusual network activities, such as spikes in network traffic, strange website appearances, and connections to unknown servers. You can use a network monitoring tool to keep track of your network activity status.
Decreased Performance Speed
A malware-inflicted system would have hidden malicious software on your device, which can cause your system or computer to slow down with a decreased performance speed.
Unusual Error Codes or Pop-ups
Hackers often lure cyber victims into downloading corrupted files or malicious software by showing pop-up messages while they surf the internet. It’s better to avoid suspicious pop-ups that you don’t understand and abstain from downloading files from unauthentic sources.
Unauthorized Access
If you get notified about unauthorized access to any of your devices or online accounts, it is definitely a red signal for hacking.
Corrupted and missing files
Malware and viruses can modify, corrupt, and delete files from your device, making those files inaccessible to you. If you notice previously saved or downloaded files not accessible without any reason and which is also showing error codes while you click on them, this could be a sign of hacking.
Measures to take to deal with cyber threats?
Although being hacked could be a devastating experience as it comes with serious damage for individuals and businesses alike. The good thing is that you can take measures to recover from the security breach once you know that your computer is hacked.
Here are some helpful ways in which you can alleviate the situation –
Disconnect from the internet
As soon as you realize that your computer is under cyber threat, disconnect your device from the internet. This is the strongest measure you can take to prevent the exploitation of cyber attackers.
Changing your passwords
Modifying or changing passwords of your online banking, social media accounts, or any associated accounts that were logged in in your system into better and stronger ones is a must.
A Full Virus Scan of Your System
Make sure to run a reliable and secure virus scan in your system to detect potential threats and for removing malware from your system.
Update your software and operating systems
An outdated operating system is more vulnerable to exploitation that’s why updating or reinstalling your software into the latest version is a wise choice to make.
Having a response plan
You must have a strong cyber incident response plan that you can imply when your system is under cyber threat, especially if you are a business owner with your own network system or cloud storage. It’s more than important to have a proper strategy in place for such situations.
To get the expert help of a reliable cyber security specialist, you can get in touch with one of the leading cyber management service providers – IEM Labs. This platform provides security services from cyber threats along with other computer management services.
Find the best cyber security institute in Kolkata and know their course details.
