Data Theft- A New Generation Leech

You all might be wondering what “Data Theft ” means.

Today lets talk on this, what exactly the data theft or data stealing is.

What does “Data Theft” mean?
Data Theft is the act of selling computer-based information from an unknowing victim with the intent of compromising privacy or obtaining confidential information. Data theft is increasing day by day and causing a problem for an individual as well as big corporate firms.

There are many ways to steal data from an individual or a corporate firm.
Data Theft very often occurs through a variety of means. It happens because some hacker has hacked into your computer system to steal sensitive information like credit card or personal information, or an employee at a company mishandled the information

• Malicious Insiders: This scenario can contain the employees, former employees, contractors, or business associates who have access to your internal computer systems and data, but use that access to destroy data, steal data or sabotage your systems. This does not include well-meaning staff who accidentally put your cybersecurity at risk or leak the data.

• Compromised Accounts: So the best example to explain this is, you imagine that you have a social media account, and the password will be ‘abc@123’ so this password can be guessed very easily. If a hacker finds this password and you are using this password for your email, other social media accounts, and many more.
  So a hacker can get access to all your online accounts. So trying to keep your password complex and should be frequently changed.

• Third Parties: In this scenario, when a third party application/website security gets compromised by an attacker, he/she gets legitimate access to the system and all the personal data, login credentials, payment details, of a corporate firm get exposed to the attacker.
  And this type of attack is became trending in the world of hackers in 2018. This topic is very fresh we all know the worldwide famous video-conferencing application whose security was compromised and the login credentials of almost half a million people were on sale on the ‘Dark Web’ (Dark Web is where all the illegal cybercrimes happen.)

How identity thieves obtain your personal information?
There are many numbers of ways, from sophisticated technology attacks to simply being at the right place at the right time

• Data breaches: An accidental data breach might occur when an organization’s employee leaves a work computer including PII (Personal Identifiable Information) or a way to access it in a vulnerable area, allowing someone to steal the data. An intentional data breach usually involves criminal finding a way to access an organization’s computer network so that they can easily steal PII. The criminals may deploy some sophisticated attacks or simply trick an employee into clicking on a link that creates a doorway to the exploit.
• Phishing: I have talked on this before what exactly Phishing is, It is the act of tricking someone within an organization to click on a link. Criminals will send emails to folks inside the entity they want to attack. They want the recipient to click on a link or open an attachment that could give the attacker access to the network of the organization, providing access to PII.
  Why the employees are the target? One industry expert says criminals consider employees the low-hanging fruit that attackers can try to manipulate to get into the system. But beware that phishing attacks can also target individuals outside a business or government agency.
  Note:- Before acting on an email link or attachment investigate it thoroughly to make sure it’s legitimate. If it appears to be from a company with whom you do business, type in the URL yourself. Making a fraudulent email look legitimate is what identity thieves do!
• Unsafe Internet Connections: Here’s one means of identity theft you may not think about. If you’re in an airport, coffee shop or other public location that offers free public Wi-Fi, a criminal might be on the same network, watching what you’re doing online. And don't think that a password-protected Wi-Fi network is much safer. The criminal could easily have the same coffee-shop password as well.
  Note:- Experts advise not to do anything on a public Wi-Fi network that involves logging in to accounts or making purchases. Doing such activities could result in you inadvertently handing over your log-in information and credit card number to a thief. If you can’t wait until you’re on a network that you know to be safe and secure at home, for instance, use virtual private network (VPN) software to create a secure “Tunnel” through which your data can travel.

There is a lot to discuss on this topic, but this much info would be enough to explain the point!

Conclusion

Although the need for cybersecurity workers is likely to continue to be high, it is difficult to forecast with certainty the number of workers required or the need for cybersecurity knowledge and skills.

There are many indications today that demand for cybersecurity workers will continue to be high, but it is notoriously difficult to measure or forecast labor supply and demand for any field, especially one that is as dynamic and fast-moving as cybersecurity.
More attention to both the capacity and capability of the Global cybersecurity workforce is needed.

Even large organizations with top talent experts and significant resources devoted to cybersecurity have suffered major cybersecurity compromises, and organizations that do not have such levels of talent or resources face even greater challenges. More highly skilled workers in cybersecurity roles would help the world respond more robustly to the cybersecurity problems it faces. All organizations need to understand their threat environment and the risks they face, address their cybersecurity problems, and hire the most appropriate people to do that work.

So, finally, I would say that ‘Data Theft’ will be feeding on the data of the vulnerable people and corporate firms like a “Parasite”