Hackers are notorious for many things. But one good thing about hackers is that they are the best source of information. If you want, you can learn many important things from the way hackers work, especially from the way hackers hack!
In this blog, I will talk about different popular hacking strategies among hackers. I will also share the tools they are using to hack your system or computer. Because, the better you know about hire a hacker, the better you can safeguard your system!
Most popular hacking techniques among hackers
- NetBIOS attack
NetBIOS attack is generally performed on a home network or home computer device. But the scary thing about the NetBIOS attack is that it takes only 15 seconds to hack your computer.
We will see how hackers perform NetBIOS attacks. But first, let’s understand the basics.
Are you vulnerable to the NetBIOS attack? Let’s check.
In your system, if you leave ‘file and printer sharing’ turned on, hackers leverage it by getting easy access to your system. Meaning, if you are leaving ‘file and printer sharing’ turned on, you are vulnerable to the NetBIOS attack. So, how to detect whether it is turned on or off? Here is how:
Step 1: Connect to the Internet using a dial-up account.
Step 2: If you are using dedicated services such as Cable and DSL, follow these steps:
- Click on Start
- Go to and click on Run
- Type Winipcfg
- Press enter
As soon as you press the enter, a similar screen will appear.
(For obvious reasons, I have edited the real information!)
Step 3: Note down the IP address and close the window.
Step 4: Open the command prompt and write the following command.
nbtstat –A IP address
This command will pop up the screen and the screen will contain the following kinds of information.
The values in <> are hex code values. Here, we are interested in the hex code number of <20>. It does not have the hex code value which is a good sign. If it has the hex code values, it simply means that the ‘file and printer sharing’ is turned on.
Hackers check the same thing. If they come across the fact that your ‘file and printer sharing’ is turned on, they follow a few steps and get access to your system.
How do hackers execute a NetBIOS attack?
Step 1: A hacker performs a scan on the range of IP addresses to find out the system or computer with ‘file and printer sharing’ turned on.
Step 2: Once they find the vulnerable system or computer which is having ‘file and printer sharing’ turned on, they run a command to find out what is being shared.
The command is: net view \\ <IP Address>
This command reveals the folder or data which is being shared.
Here, the computer is sharing My Documents and TEMP folders.
Step 3: Once hackers know the folders being shared, they run the next command to get access to those folders.
The command is: Net use x: \\<IP address>\temp
Boom! Hackers now have access to the temp folder of your computer or system.
- The Trojan “Horse” attack
If you know the strategic move of a trojan horse, you know how dangerous it is. It is an illusion. It looks different, acts differently!
For those who do not know what a trojan is: trojan is a small program that looks and acts differently, but it ultimately gives remote access to your computer or system to hackers.
How dangerous is a trojan?
A trojan program can completely mess up your system.
A trojan can,
- Open your CD-Rom drive
- Take the screenshot of any screen on your computer
- Get access to your files and drives
- Disable the keyboard, mouse
- Record your keyboard key pressing pattern (keystrokes) and send to the hacker
Types of trojan:
There are mainly two types of trojan programs. One is Netbus and the other is SubSeven. Both of these trojans have two parts – client and server.
The server is nothing but a file that needs to be installed on your system or computer in order to infect it. And the client is the file that hackers use to remotely control a computer where the server has been installed.
The trojan attack methods:
Method 1: The hacker sends the Netbus server file with a catchy name in the email to a user. If a user clicks on it, the user does not see any activity, but the trojan server file installs on the system or computer without the knowledge of the user.
Boom! All now a hacker has to do is use the Netbus client to remotely control your computer or system.
Method 2 (and beyond): Method 1 is the ultimate method. Hackers just slightly change it to target users with new approaches to confuse users.
Hackers embed a Netbus server file with .exe file and name it a game such as Chess.exe. They embed a Netbus server file with many other files such as image files or video files. To increase the chances of clicks on such infected files, hackers name it attractively and use some adult videos or images.
- Denial-of-service (DoS) attack:
This is one of the smartest cyber attacks. DoS attack overwhelms a system or computer’s resources so that it cannot respond to any user command or service request.
Generally, hackers do not get any direct benefit from a DoS attack, but it helps hackers a lot to carry out other attacks. Here is how: A DoS attack paralyzes the whole system or computer. The security solutions installed on it or manual security tactics cannot work while hackers invade a paralyzed system or computer.
How to execute a DoS attack?
Executing a DoS attack is very easy and straightforward. There are many tools available online which you can install and by adding the IP address of the targeted computer, you can paralyze it. These tools generate random packets and send them to targeted a computer to overwhelm its resources. Nemesy is one such type of tool.
Hackers can also overwhelm the resources of targeted computers or systems by using a simple command prompt command.
The command is: ping 10.128.131.108 –t |65500
Here, because of the ‘-t’ in the command, the system keeps sending pings to the targeted computer until the program is stopped.
Most popular hacking tools among hackers
- Port scanners:
It scans computers and systems for active ports. With this tool, a hacker can identify what services are available on targeted computers. Port scanners can scan a single IP address or a range of IP addresses.
- Sub Seven:
The Sub Seven is the trojan tool. It is feature-loaded and gets a lot of crucial information from targeted computers or systems.
Joiners:
Such tools are used to combine two executable files into one to send it as the trojan. Joiners hide the trojan file in legitimate files.
Summing up:
Not a recession, but a cybercriminal is the biggest threat to businesses. A cyberattack does not only cause financial loss to an organization, but it dramatically affects the company reputation and customer experience.
There are many measures to avoid cyber attacks. But all measures are based on the ways cybercriminals are performing cyberattacks. Meaning, what we have discussed in this blog is worth its weight in gold!
About the Author: Parth Patel is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of SyS Creations – top managed IT services and security services provider. He has been serving in the Canadian healthcare industry for more than 7 years and helped many healthcare organizations to safeguard crucial patient data.
