Whether its a PC, laptop, tablet or phone they are all at risk.
Why?
The main reason is that hackers want to break into your devices to gain control one way or the other for their own benefit. Usually the benefit is financial, but not always.
If it is financial the most popular form of hacking is ransomware which encrypts your device so that you can’t use until you pay a fee often in cryptocurrency.
Sometimes they want to use your device as a mule, in other words they may be trying to hide online and they will connect to may be dozens of devices like yours to avoid detection by creating a very difficult path to follow rather than just connecting with their device and getting caught. This will be done with very little chance of you knowing they are doing it.
It could be that they want to attack for political reasons just to cause disruption and upset the establishment. Locking up many systems on a particular network can cause significant issues that don’t destroy but do disrupt.
Then you get the real geniuses who want hack you because they can, often with fragile egos and a mind for destruction.
What To Do
Updates
Updates and updates or did I just mention that. This process is so often ignored or overlooked. Oh it’s annoying I don’t want to close all my windows, it’ll take ages to reboot and I’m busy, I haven’t got time. These are some of the most popular excuses not reasons excuses for not updating.
What I have found over the years is that almost every update big or small contains security patches, these patches needs to be added because vulnerabilities have been found. It could be that there is what is known as a backdoor that they didn’t know about, a backdoor is a way hackers can get into the system without the providers knowledge. Or it could be an added security improvement for future protection that they can see coming.Â
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Because technology is always changing new ways to do things are discovered by the good guys and the bad guys, whilst the good guys are defending the bad guys are attacking, this process never stops.
But at the end of the day security patches are created for a good reason to protect. If you don’t install them then you are not fully protected, its that simple.
Leaving Your Device Unlocked
The vast majority of devices lock automatically at a predetermined setting and are safe from prying eyes. However, if you do leave your device lying round particularly in a public it is vulnerable. Now the vast majority of the time there will be no harm done and no dramas, but not necessarily all of the time.
If your device is unlocked your personal information is open to all. There are many problems this could cause if someone was to get in and say start emailing themselves with your photos or financial information to name but two potential concerns. I can’t say what is anyone’s device that is a very personal matter, but you know what’s on there, do you really want to take the risk.
Sharing Passwords or Passcodes
Be very careful who you share this information with, some people can be too trusting or just clueless. I would say never share these details with anyone which is the right advice, but people will anyway. Don’t forget you can change the passwords or passcodes at any time if you feel the need.
Messing With The Settings
A little knowledge is dangerous comes to mind, if you are going into the settings and changing things without knowing what you are doing this could lead to problems. Modern operating systems on devices are pretty well locked down and protected from incurring much damage if settings are altered. But you could be opening up the security settings and allowing more access than you should without realising and not knowing how it was before if you try to change it back to how it was.
Summary
These are the most common ways to make your device easier to hack. If you follow these actions it will make your devices more secure and someone else who has less protection will become the next target.
