Negative Surveillance: Is your computer working for a hacker and you don’t know?

For every new nifty piece of software, aspect of technology or nugget of information, a new hacker tumbles out of the closet. Out there, in the vast awesome and totally uncertain virtual world, you don’t know who is going to attack you next. Here’s the worst part about being attacked online – you won’t know the pain until it has been done.

Hackers have evolved from their earlier avatars of bored, college-going geeky kids to an extremely sophisticated coterie of experts who are out to milk your wallets out or to see to it that your computer( extended to networks) are razed to ground ( figuratively). So is your computer working for you or for an acute hacker and you didn’t even know about it?

Here are 4 specific things you need to watch out for:

A Man-in-the-browser attack is an advanced form of Phishing and if the hacker has intention of fishing out your financial details and decides to employ this form of attach, there is a lot to be lost if you don’t take due action. A few articles have been written earlier on the Man-in-the-browser attack and necessary precautions; important software that can help you combat this kind of an attack has been discussed earlier ( Links Below). If you can weed the MITB attack out, you are almost safe from the crab claws of the hacker.

One of the more common, but just as dangerous as an MITB (Man in the Browser attack) is Spyware – the digital vermin which looks even better when it perches somewhere deep in your computer. Rampant downloads from sites you don’t trust; file sharing through P2P sites and software; downloading attachments sent to you from unknown people and other such acts are primarily responsible for Spyware to be embedded on your system. An informative article about how Spyware systematically enters your system should help offer you more insight into Spyware.

Keylogger software is the sinister, one-armed cousin of spyware. It is more focused and more determined to find out what exactly you do on your computer. It is another way hackers use to find out your passwords, financial details or any other information which might be input using your keyboard. Most of the modern anti-virus software programs do come with an anti-keylogger module, but do ensure that you have it on and activated.

One of the latest developments in the ever darkening world of virtual attacks by hackers; Clickjacking is the invisible devil working behind seemingly popular, trustworthy and legitimate sites. A piece of code invisible to the readers is pasted behind possible places where the reader might end-up clicking (which includes graphics like buttons or banners) and take the readers to a page created to pilfer your information – which apparently goes unnoticed by the users. Here is an article that explains everything about clickjacking and how it affects users.

ClickJacking: The Threat That's Hiding Out in The Open

Phishing Delivery Mechanisms: KNow Your Enemy - Man In The Middle Attacks