Hacking

Hacking is defined as any access to a computer, computer system, or computer network without the permission of either the rightful owner or the person in charge of them. According to the British National Crime Agency Cyber Crime Assessment 2016 report, cybercrime accounted for 53% of all crimes in 2015. It is expected that cybercrime will continue to develop and evolve into a highly lucrative and well-organized enterprise. Cybercriminals, whether state-sponsored or not, are even beginning to devote funds to research and development. In other words, cybercrime has become an industry. Criminals are increasingly moving online. Terrorist groups are also beginning to exploit cybercrime to fund their mandates.

A recent form of cybercrime is ransomware, a form of malware that holds people’s data files hostage until a payment is made in Bitcoins. The security vendor Malwarebytes used a “honeypot” to attract attackers and discovered an increase in attacks from 17% in 2015 to 259% in 2016. There are concerns that in the future smart home devices could be held hostage, with owners being forced to pay a fee to have access to their lights and Internet of Things (IoT) appliances. Ransomware may also appear on smart cars, trucks, trains, and planes—and some experts suggest that it is only a matter of time before people are left helpless on the side of the road and unable to drive their vehicles until they pay a ransom.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have enabled the rise of ransomware. In fact, experts predict that by 2040 more crime will be committed by machines than by humans. This will arise as the human workforce moves towards more automation. What happens when robots are hacked? Could they then be changed into suicide bombers? The same concern applies to hijacking drones and perhaps using multitudes like flying bot armies to attack. There are already Wi-Fi-hacking drones that can land on a roof and intercept Wi-Fi, wireless keyboards, and other data being passed over a network. Thus, practicing safe computing is essential to avoiding hacking and its effects. This entry highlights hacking, the tools it deploys, its widespread uptake, and implications.