Hacking+-+Arthur.H+&+Katie.R

__Hacking__

__Description__ Hacking is when someone accesses data that is not theirs but only when they do not have permission to access it.Hacking occurs on a daily basis, it can completely destroy a company as hackers can do anything from simply looking at the data and passing /selling it on to others to completely changing or deleting the data. There are different levels of consequences for these different acts, some include being jailed and being fined.

__ History __ The world is full of hackers, or so it seems. In the past few months barely a day has gone by without news of a fresh security breach. Multi-national companies have been left counting the cost of assaults on their e-mail systems and websites. Members of the public have had their personal information stolen and pasted all over the internet. In the early decades of the 21st century the word "hacker" has become synonymous with people who lurk in darkened rooms, anonymously terrorising the internet. But it was not always that way. The original hackers were benign creatures. Students, in fact. To anyone attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the 1950s and 60s, a hack was simply an elegant or inspired solution to any given problem. Many of the early MIT hacks tended to be practical jokes. One of the most extravagant saw a replica of a campus police car put on top of the Institute's Great Dome. Over time, the word became associated with the burgeoning computer programming scene, at MIT and beyond. For these early pioneers, a hack was a feat of programming prowess. Such activities were greatly admired as they combined expert knowledge with a creative instinct.

__Ways to stop hacking__

10) Comment Attacks
Comments are one of most prized features for blogs, and helps create a great relationship between the author and the reader, and also between readers in the wider community. It would also be easy for someone to insert HTML code that causes trouble. You need to “validate” the form input before it’s accepted, to strip out all but the most basic HTML tags, for example and also if you’re using WordPress – you can utilize the “Keyword Filter” to block out any harsh words that might raise an issue or two.

9) Unsolicited Installation of Scripts
It can be dangerous to install third-party scripts and programs on your website unless you understand what they are actually doing. Even if you don’t fully understand the programming, you can read through the code and look for tell-tale signs such as references to third-party URLs. You can also visit community forums such as Site-Point and Digital-Point to ask around for better advice.

Avoid Scam/Spam Websites
In a desperate attempt to get visitors you might consider try extensive viral marketing and other means of gaining the attention, this may cause a few people in the wrong community to raise a few eyebrows. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The last thing you need as a settled web-master is to cause a stir amongst the wrong people. Stay away from websites and especially forums that offer “information” or “get traffic quick” that uses illegal spam lists and such.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #b72626; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em;">7) Clear the Cookies!
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Personally, I use a lot of public computers to blog and do other on-line activities, maybe because it’s convenient or my unreliable ISP crashed on my once more. Inevitable there’s many, many web masters like me that use public services for either a quick access or regular work. <span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Just don’t forget to clear out the cookies and cache before you leave! Even if the service provider claims “no tracking of privacy” or anything along those lines, a quick clean before you leave wouldn't hurt anyone.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #b72626; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em;">6) Prevent illegal farmers’ from “harvesting” your lists
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hacking techniques are used to “harvest” email addresses, which are then used by spammers and other hackers for malicious activities. If you are storing email data on your website, for what-ever required reason, make sure it’s stored in a secure format, such as a MySQL Database. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Most top-CMS such as WordPress and Joomla make this compulsory but there’s many self written CMS’s too. If your script simply writes data to a text called “emails.txt” it won’t be long before someone sniffs it out.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #b72626; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em;">5) Make sure your files are using the correct CHMOD Permissions
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CHMOD File Permissions assign a specific value to every file/folder on your server, which allows different levels of access. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CHMOD Permission range from 000 (No access) to 777 (Full access), you must decide which files get what permissions, but be warned that some third party software require higher permissions to operate properly. You need to balance out features with security and make an informed decision. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Using a FTP you can change the permissions given to each file/folder on your server. This is vital to ensure any unauthorized access to your content is comprehensively denied. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Note – Make sure your CHMOD settings work with your current web-hosts. Some hosts prevent ’777′ for security reasons.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #b72626; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em;">4) Don’t use Generic Usernames
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Using common words for usernames such as “admin”, “administrator” or “Site Owner” can cause many implications because you are simply making the job of the hacker’s a lot easier. By using such common words for your username, you are incredibly increasing the success rate of the hacker by at least a few points of a percentage, which is consider a lot where only one answer can be right from an unlimited range of combinations.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #b72626; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em;">3) Securing your Ports
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To put in simple words, a “PORT” is used to access data from outside the server. It also utilized to transfer data both ways, into the server and also outgoing. Most of this activity is behind closed doors and happens automatically, and only trained professionals tend to play around with such details. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Nevertheless, ports are constantly opened & closed for easy-access, for programs such as a FTP (File Transfer Protocol). This can be favorable for any hackers attempting to access your sensitive files, so make sure any unwanted ports are ‘properly closed.’

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #b72626; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em;">2) Updated Security Patches
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If your web hosting provider hasn’t already done so, you should check that all the latest security patches for various aspects of the service are properly installed. As you might know, WordPress (self-hosted) is one of the most popular Content Management Systems out there on the market. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It is used by millions- so it’s not surprising to see many hackers working day/night trying to hack it. Updates and patches are regularly released, so keep an eye out for all your plug-ins/core files.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #b72626; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em;">1) Use Strong Passwords!
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The number one technique you can possibly implement. Hackers are experts at programming computers to plough through huge amounts of data very quickly. That’s the reason longer passwords are more secure; the number of possible combinations grows exponentially with every extra character added. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hackers employ a technique called “dictionary attack” where they repeatedly try username and password combinations by running through hundreds of common words, phrases, numbers and combination them till they get lucky. It’s important you use random strings like “j@m13s(!)” instead of perhaps “jamie123″