Cybersecurity Expert Answers Hacking Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

[00:00] doesn't mean they're not capable of doing a lot of damage. Hi, I'm Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B. I'm here today to answer your questions from the internet.

[00:13] [upbeat music] "The internet isn't just crowded with bots,

[00:25] Think zombie apocalypse, but digital." I see an em dash, I think this is a bot.

[00:41] In comment sections all across the internet, there are a lot of bots that are posting nowadays. and spamming the comment section by saying,

[00:57] I use it all the time, and you can buy it here." and sometimes these are operated by nation states the population in another country

[01:11] into voting a certain way or doing a certain thing. And so as you're reading comments on the internet, where they're treating you as a pawn.

[01:27] It's a difficult issue to navigate. I would suggest that you find like court documents or reports that happened

[01:43] rather than later on down the line. and then form your own opinions. "Scammers are using my voice with AI. What do I do?"

[01:56] where a elder family member may receive a phone call and the scammer may be telling your grandparents

[02:09] I need money right now. I'm injured, I'm hurt. because oftentimes these scams to actually verify that this happened.

[02:25] it's very difficult to deal with. is before this scam hits you, Say, "Hey, there's a new scam going around.

[02:40] And this can be a good topic of conversation and also keep each other safe. one thing that they can do is try to verify

[02:56] Ask a question that only you would know. So think very old past shared experience. What's your favorite food? What was the first dog's name?

[03:10] is just hang up the phone and call you back on your number. but if you can discuss what your protocol is going to be

[03:23] then if this scam does hit your family member, and they won't hand over the money. "Can someone gain access to your phone activity

[03:37] When someone gains access to your phone activity, coming into contact with your phone at all. is when your information is stored

[03:51] One place where your phone activity is stored or you send or receive a text message, and those records get stolen,

[04:04] what you're doing on your phone. Also, you may have personal data on cloud accounts, you're updating those cloud accounts with more information.

[04:16] these actors can figure out what you're doing on your phone One way to keep yourself safe is to be mindful Make sure that you're not using the same password

[04:30] Hopefully, store that password manager This is what we do. This is a question from Idk1997283.

[04:44] So the wrong number text scams is something You receive a text from an unknown number and it may say, "Hello, John," and your name is not John.

[04:57] And then they'll try to initiate a conversation with you. These are part of organized crime operations and unfortunately, they have a history

[05:12] So when you receive a wrong number text scam, Don't talk to the person, don't give them any money.

[05:24] because you don't know who's on the other end is behind that text that you got. "Is Anonymous still around? LOL."

[05:38] The original people that made up Anonymous, so you don't see them do the wild things because they have lives that they need to live

[05:52] So this question is from tyinsf. "Does SMS messages report spam do anything???" There may be a button that looks like three dots,

[06:06] associated with that message. and you may see an option that says Report. When you report a message on SMS

[06:19] that goes to an entire ecosystem of cybersecurity employees and take notes and monitor for trends.

[06:31] because this job involves essentially human conflict The scammers are continuously updating their scams

[06:43] and the cybersecurity people are receiving these reports and continuously updating the anti-fraud mechanisms So when you receive a fraudulent message,

[06:57] So this question "Is there any risk in snooping around the darknet?" keep in mind that the biggest danger coming from the darknet

[07:14] but it's coming from human threats. Keep in mind that the person on the other end and these are not normal social interactions.

[07:28] There's a lot of cybercriminal forums, socializing places where criminals tend to hang out, There's also ransom websites

[07:43] where extortion groups will steal data from companies Sometimes people go on the darknet for work, what they're bragging about,

[07:58] for any mistakes they may have made in their communications. So the darknet is a place of social activity. If you wanna wander into it,

[08:11] Obviously keep your software updated. that you find on the darknet. and hostile countries.

[08:25] "Don't click the link? Okay. You may have just clicked on a weird, suspicious link Sometimes people do

[08:38] and they may come from a legitimate sender So double check the sender, definitely hit the Report button

[08:53] That way it can go into the system, On the device that you clicked on that suspicious link, did you input any of your personal information?

[09:07] Think about what happened after clicking that link. the next steps that you need to take. you need to change that password.

[09:22] and get your credit card number changed over or installed anything from that website, it may be worth reinstalling your operating system.

[09:38] and then closed out of it immediately, than if you had inputted any information This question is from lemonsnicks.

[09:52] For accounts that you log into all the time, approximately every three months. It's inconvenient, and nobody wants to do it.

[10:07] versus using a unique password on every website, on every website. And the reason for this is,

[10:23] they will try that same password This is a common practice by attackers. you should focus on the most important

[10:36] your work accounts, your banking, for communication with your friends. a good practice is to use

[10:49] where you note down all of your accounts you also need to update your password manager. you're gonna use one password

[11:01] I prefer to use the ones and not in the cloud. A Quora user asks, "Are sextortion emails real?"

[11:13] that say, "Oh, I've got your naked pictures. These are sent to millions of people. of those millions of people

[11:27] because they might have a situation going on, These kinds of scams are very damaging. Don't get emotionally wrapped up into this too much,

[11:44] There are also sextortion schemes where they may use AI If you are stuck in a situation like this, Don't do anything drastic.

[11:57] Just slow down, calm down, make rational decisions. it may be difficult for people to report this information. that you can talk to privately about this matter.

[12:12] from the explain like I'm five subreddit. When people are using the internet, that provide internet access,

[12:27] that you need to block these websites. the government has essentially to shut down the entire internet,

[12:41] International law in cybercrime is very weak right now. And in situations like with Iran,

[12:55] that's a less common scenario. Sometimes this is because it's illegal to criticize the government.

[13:10] it's usually because the website may be associated So the intentions behind blocking websites if you don't like your country blocking websites,

[13:27] if you wanna keep the internet open and free A Quora user asks, "Do cybercriminals dump their phones I have seen videos of cybercriminals smashing their phones,

[13:43] It doesn't really help them. or on different devices, the data inside of it can still be retrieved.

[13:57] there are forensics teams pull out the chips and the boards and read data off of chips bit by bit.

[14:10] but if it's a really important case, and they'll figure out what they need to figure out. "Best security training for aging parents?

[14:24] So this is a very important topic. are getting new phones or new devices, to be more locked down and more secure.

[14:37] You can talk with them about how these devices can be used, and make sure they know that they can call you anytime Also, another important thing

[14:49] Oftentimes these scams target elderly people, bring that up as a topic of conversation with your parents.

[15:01] So it's important to keep them educated, You should call your mother sometime. So this question is from Vision-Quest-9054.

[15:16] Hacking implies a technical kind of attack, doesn't involve technical skills Oftentimes, it involves just lying to people on the phone,

[15:32] that they wouldn't otherwise do. "Why should I care about my data getting stolen/sold/generally not being secure?"

[15:45] is they may not care about their data being stolen. The problem is if you have an income, if you have a job,

[15:57] You may not realize in the moment but into the future, somebody might come up with a new idea When it's stolen, it's out there,

[16:12] and it's not going to go away. "Why are hospitals more vulnerable to cyber threats?" They are using machines that are very complex,

[16:27] and as a result, you can't update the software very often. as quickly as maybe your phone might receive them,

[16:39] that are unique to them. to hospitals being more vulnerable, There are people that have had their treatments delayed

[16:54] because of a hack. I feel is getting worse over the years. more than they used to.

[17:07] The police will often prioritize attacks against hospitals, in that kind of activity often get arrested more quickly. "Is it possible to hack someone through Wi-Fi?"

[17:22] and nobody else has access to your devices, If you're on a public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop also on the same Wi-Fi,

[17:35] Now, one thing to keep in mind The typical machine that you're going to use Now that said,

[17:49] there's a lot of innovative, advanced attacks out there. that you're gonna be totally safe on public Wi-Fi, but nowadays, when cybercriminals are attacking victims,

[18:01] where they can affect thousands of victims, So a Quora user asks, or are they just a bunch of geeks?"

[18:14] One thing to keep in mind about the internet, but the problem is that the internet allows you So a bad actor can connect with millions of people.

[18:31] that could cause harm And there are gangs operating nowadays and to mass recruit people into committing violence.

[18:45] and I think the general public should also take seriously. Friend asks, "What do hackers actually do?"

[18:58] Me says, "70% Googling, 20% reading documentation, of what do hackers actually do, The term hacker is a bit confusing and controversial.

[19:15] People use the same term to mean two very different things. On one hand, hacker can be used to describe a cybercriminal where they are abusing computers in order to abuse people.

[19:27] is to describe a non-criminal person just exploring what their computer is capable of doing, So a common way that people may engage in hacking

[19:44] is when kids are cheating at video games. And I don't mean downloading cheats that someone else wrote. I mean manipulating the memory in your computer,

[19:56] just exploring for yourself. that children commonly engage in But if there's no victim,

[20:08] Now, if you're a kid watching this, and say that I told you to do it. "The line between script kiddie and hacker???"

[20:24] that don't understand the systems that they're exploiting. but they will download exploits from the internet Just because someone's described as a script kiddie

[20:39] The term hacker is a little bit controversial. that hack illegally into computers.

[20:51] who do not break the law, that wasn't anticipated, and use those skills to make the world more secure.

[21:05] "How do companies know that hackers stole data?" like if someone steals your car. what data was actually stolen, if any?"

[21:19] Oftentimes with the extortion groups they will just tell the company that they stole the data. where they are threatening the company and demanding money.

[21:34] they actually do delete the company's When they're operating these schemes, by destroying the company on the way out.

[21:48] This question is from Intelligent-Way1288. So there is a law called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It defines what is illegal computer hacking versus not.

[22:06] And when police are trying to determine usually the metric they go by is whether or not stealing someone else's money, causing harm to a person.

[22:23] and do weird things that may break a computer, Just in general, don't be a bad person on the internet, This question comes from 747269737616E.

[22:40] launch cyberattacks on one another?" is not quite the same as launching a missile. One thing that we've seen in recent conflicts

[22:56] in conjunction with a physical attack. So for example, traffic cameras in a city may be hacked, may be monitoring the cameras

[23:11] That knowledge may be used to inform missile strikes This is often how we see cyberattacks play out This is from the privacy subreddit.

[23:26] have so much trouble getting into iPhones?" because iPhones were designed Different products available to the consumer

[23:39] have different design features, different selling points, often wanna have a phone other competitor phones like Android,

[23:54] to do what they want on their phone. If you wanna do creative, unusual things with your phone, that could also be used by governments and police

[24:09] Do you wanna have a more secure, locked down machine Or do you wanna have a machine you can do a lot with? with those abilities.

[24:22] So this question comes from BadKarma-18. how do data breaches happen?" figured out an exploit that the company didn't fix yet,

[24:37] or perhaps tricked an employee into providing a credential and then abusing the employee's access to steal data. There is a constant discovery

[24:51] and companies are constantly fixing all of these exploits. "How does law enforcement track down cybercriminals

[25:03] who use public Wi-Fi and VPNs to commit illegal activities?" VPNs, public Wi-Fi, Catching them involves waiting for them to make a mistake.

[25:18] There's a lot of footprints they leave behind within their encrypted devices. that has nothing to do with encryption or data protection.

[25:34] when it comes to catching cybercriminals, It's quite interesting work, honestly. "So how do VPNs work?"

[25:48] So say you have a message that you wanna send to a website, You may pass that message to someone else's machine, and then that machine will pass that message to the website.

[26:04] So a VPN is a way to hide your IP address online. is that you're using someone else's IP address instead. that are gonna tell you this is how you get more secure,

[26:18] but unfortunately, VPNs also increase risk as well. so that you can use their IP address instead of yours, that other person's machine may be looking at your traffic,

[26:32] So as you are making your cybersecurity choices, So this question is from Malwarebeasts.

[26:44] like RaidForums and BreachForums Cybercrime is something that's not gonna be solved, just like regular crime in society, but it can be reduced.

[26:59] And the actual strategy of fighting cybercrime arrest bad actors, and scattering them is a positive step forward.

[27:15] and all of these different tactics That's all for today. Hope you learned something. and thanks for watching Cybersecurity Support.