I recently had the pleasure of attending a conference where Kevin Mitnick, the “world’s most famous hacker,” presented. Kevin is a bestselling author, and top cyber security speaker who hacked into 40 major corporations simply for the challenge of doing so!
Kevin began his hacking career as a young teen in the 1980s. He was a prankster who was incredibly intelligent, and what kid doesn’t enjoy having a little fun hacking into the major phone systems? He eventually moved on to bigger hacks, leading to his arrest and prison time served.
Although Kevin never intended to profit from his hacking hobby, he had more curiosity and intelligence than evil intentions, there are people all over the world who do! I am fully aware that as long as we are in a cyber world, we are all at the mercy of the next big cyber threat… the next genius who does have bad intentions… but what I was not aware of is HOW EASY AND QUICK it is to gain access to your computer!
During the hour-long presentation, Kevin performed three cyber attacks, each only taking a few moments and to gain access to a user’s computer, including usernames and passwords and breaking through two-factor authentication protection. One of the tricks he demonstrated was duplicating an electronic access key simply by walking past a person who was carrying the key. How many times do we walked past someone with a laptop bag and think absolutely nothing of it? I know now that bag may contain a device that will duplicate my access key.
Watching this happen in real life was an eye-opening experience. It made me want to close all of my online accounts, delete all social media tools, and revert to the cyber-safe dark ages. Of course, that isn’t realistic, but it does make one realize the importance of cyber security even as an individual.
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Source: Accent Consulting