Hacking in the Real World

Zombie drones, infected light bulbs and listening smartphones;cyber attacks are evolving to rely on physical devices and spying techniques,as Roland Moore-Colyer discovers.

Install some security software on your PC, whack on the firewall, make sure your router has decent password encryption, don’t use the same login credentials for every website, and whatever you do don’t click on dodgy links in emails from unusual PayPal addresses. For protecting everyday computing, these are all pretty decent practices.

Sure, hackers are forever digging up vulnerabilities in software and web services, but even if they swipe data, as long as you’re careful with what information you put online, you stand a good chance of stopping cyber criminals from nicking your identity or going on a shopping spree with your credit card details.

Meanwhile, the big distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are normally targeted at major websites or companies rather than the laptop of the average web surfer.

So are the security-savvy among us mostly safe from cyber crooks and have-a-go hackers? Well, unless you’re super-paranoid and spend your life on a remote farm or in an electromagnetic protected Perspex box, then the answer is no.

The reason for this is the creation of new cyber-attack vectors that exploit mass networks of computers and openly available data, and work at weaknesses in real-world systems rather than just lurk on the virtual highways of the internet.

Physical hacking

Looking back at the turbulent year of 2016, aside from Brexit shocks and Trump victories, we also heard news stories about cars and planes being hacked. These intrepid cyber explorers were keen to think beyond the traditional use of web browsers and email as routes to spread malware and gain control over various systems that many would not think of as vulnerable to cyber attacks.