The Ubiquity of Hacking and Getting at the Root of the Problem

Available for Interviews:  Paul Tracey

Paul Tracey is the Founder & CEO of Innovative Technologies, a Managed Security Service Provider in New York, and is a national speaker, cyber security educator, small business advocate, and author of Delete The Hacker Playbook and Cyber Storm.

What Paul Tracey can say in an interview on
Cybersecurity and Hacking:

Hacking involves the misuse of devices like computers, smartphones, tablets, and networks to cause damage to or corrupt systems, gather information on users, steal data and documents, or disrupt data-related activity. They can also trick users into opening malicious attachments or links which further compromise sensitive personal data.

Unfortunately, hackers are increasingly growing in size and sophistication, and are using strong and malicious methods of attack that are designed to fly under the radar of cybersecurity software and IT teams.

There are really three main factors that enter into the ubiquity of hacking and why it’s so effective: 

    1. Overall lack of education or education gap. We have a large majority of the population that received 0 education around computer use in high school or college—forget about security. Digital citizenship should be a required course that includes cybersecurity and personal data protection curriculum so we can begin to close this gap. Because of this, hacking is easy money and is extremely lucrative and easier to execute than it ever has been. Anywhere you have an opportunity in society to “get rich quick” through the pain of others criminals will appear. 
    2. Human behavior. Hackers are getting better every day at hacking your behavior. The attacks are usually precluded by a good deal of social engineering so when you get a phishing or smishing attack, it looks much more legitimate than the Nigerian prince scams in the early 2000s. These attacks do not start with exploiting your technology, they start with exploiting human behavior so that a seemingly harmless action gives them access. 
    3. One does not need to have very much technical skill to get in on the illegal side of this. The equivalent of mid-sized corporations exists to provide things like ransomware as a service to virtually anyone who can navigate to the dark web marketplaces, thus giving access to this type of crime to many who did not have the means. These organizations run the same as any corporation would, they just don’t have to follow any laws and they scale very fast due to the huge amounts of cash flow. 

Disappointingly, hacking is a multibillion-dollar industry, but with more education and investment into solutions that target this specific area of criminal activity, the risks associated with this problem can be mitigated.

 

Interview: Paul Tracey

Paul Tracey is the Founder and CEO of Innovative Technologies, a Managed Security Service Provider in New York, and is a national speaker, cyber security educator, and small business advocate, and author of Delete The Hacker Playbook and Cyber Storm.

Nearly a successful decade in business, Innovative Technologies continues to help clients ensure they have security and compliance procedures in place and well-trained staff. They have earned the reputation as a leading managed security services provider (MSSP) in upstate New York.

Tracey has been featured in MSP Success Magazine and on the Success Spotlight podcast and also runs an MSSP dedicated to helping small and medium-size businesses protect their reputation, money, and customers from cybercriminals.

     

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