Understanding Hacking in the News

Video: “Hack reveals scandalous Sony secrets” uploaded by CNN

I’m sure you’ve heard about the most recent Sony hack and the following controversy regarding the movie “The Interview” that depicts a plot to assassinate the leader of North Korea. Sony isn’t the only company to get hacked, and they certainly won’t be the last, but the following information should help you understand the jargon you might hear in the news when the next attack happens.

Let’s start with phishing. This is the type of hacking that you will likely hear about most because it happens all of the time. It is usually done by sending out mass emails in the guise of a legitimate financial or institutional service asking to confirm payment or Social Insurance Numbers. This technique is used to steal a person’s money or identity. When you hear about these attacks in the news, or even from an institution, you generally hear something like “There have been recent reports of fraudulent emails sent to you from us. Please do not respond or open them.” Even UBC staff and students have been affected.

The next form of hacking used to be the go-to for TV shows and movies from the mid 2000s when someone hacked into another’s computer. That’s right, the Trojan virus. Again, the Trojan virus usually targets individual people; however, it is often used to get past the gates of a company’s system. In this case, an email will be sent to a large list of individuals with a file attachment (usually a photograph or document) that disguises the malicious program built into the file. Once you open the file the harmful program will start running. A program like this can do all sorts of awful things from completely wiping your computer of all of its data, recording every key stroke, or collecting all of your data. It is believed that the most recent Sony Pictures Entertainment hack–the one that fueled harsh words and actions between the US and North Korea­–began with a Trojan virus.

Finally, the other most common attack you will hear about is denial of service. Now, denial of service itself is not a form of hacking, but a result of certain attack strategies. The goal with this type of attack is to suspend or interrupt a service so that the company providing the service loses money or users. The strategy to cause this interruption almost always includes overloading the system by causing too much traffic on, or to a website. A good example of this was was when PlayStation‘s network was so overloaded by millions of fake users that it had to be shutdown.

Video: “Google Ideas: Distributed Denial of Service Attacks” uploaded by Google Ideas

By now, you are probably thinking that the Internet is a very dangerous place, which it is. The first step in protecting yourself is with strong passwords. The CBC reported ways to make your passwords stronger, with it, SplashData’s list of the most used passwords in 2014 (please don’t use “123456” like many other people did). Additionally, the Government of Canada has provided a wealth of information on how to protect yourself from cyber criminals.

Signing off,
Dorothy Ordogh