Remember the endless days of running errands? Those days when you had to go to the bank for deposits, transfers, paying bills, managing credit cards, to the store to go shopping and having to run to the pharmacy to get a prescription--the days of running errands like these are over. That is because everything these days can be completely done online. However, it must be pointed out that with that, the risks of information thievery become higher with more information that you allow online.
MSNBC reported today that researchers have uncovered more ways that Internet criminals can spy on users even through a secure connection. They are able to sneak around encrypted Internet traffic in order to pick up hints about the things that their target is doing online.
The article went on to say that the information they receive is "like tapping a telephone conversation and hearing muffled voices that hint at the tone of a conversation."
The idea behind these small attacks is not to break the code and completely hack through the encryption. The purpose is to gather small tidbits about their target that they could eventually piece together.
Another way that hackers are gathering information is to hack smartphones. This was one of the hottest topics at a Black Hat computer security conference. Smartphones are susceptible to hacking because the user happily invites in applications to a device where so much personal information is stored. These days it would be really difficult to find someone without their cell phone glued to their hand, and in our phones we store many things from passwords, banking, shopping to contacts and emails.
According to an article by AFP, there was a study of more than 300,000 mobile phone applications and it found that many of them accessed more information than you would expect. Along with hacking information through apps, there have been apps containing malicious viruses as well.
Although hackers still prefer computers, it won't be long before they realize that there are many more cell phones in the world that are now carrying the same information, if not more. So be careful when it comes to applications for your smartphone, you never know when someone could be using it as an avenue to spy on you.
