What is a hacker?

Hackers are commonly referred to in print media and Internet reports, and are often viewed as either criminal masterminds intent of wreaking havoc and causing chaos, or bored (but highly skilled) teenagers with nothing better to do with this time.

However, a hacker is just an individual who is familiar with computer software and who is able to find and exploit security weaknesses in computer systems. Should you conduct a search on the internet for HTML Injection, you would find a great many websites that explain how to use this technique to gain access to websites.  If you were to follow the instructions, you would essentially be a hacker. Just, not a very good one.

Not all hackers are bad, not all lack a conscience, and many are not motivated by money. Some are highly talented individuals who want recognition for their computer skills or just want to protest about something. Hackers have been known to break in just to prove a point. It is morally reprehensible that board members are taking huge amounts of cash out of the business, but are jeopardizing the privacy of their customers and leaving them exposed to Identity theft.

Some companies even employ hackers to test their systems. These “ethical hackers” or “white hat hackers” perform an extremely valuable job. It is far better to have an employee attempt to hack a computer network to find vulnerabilities in order to fix them, rather than have a malicious outsider break in and steal data. Facebook has, and does, hire programmers for this purpose, and even runs an annual hack-a-thon.

The rise of the everyday hacker

The leading company in the field of application security testing, Veracode, produces an annual security report that assesses the state of software security. The company’s researchers investigate security trends and makes predictions about how vulnerabilities could potentially be exploited.

In this year’s State of Software Security Report the company has predicted there will be a rise in the number of “everyday hackers” over the next few years. These “have-a-go-hackers” will not be highly skilled computer geniuses. They will be normal people who decide to have a go at hacking. As previously mentioned, there is a lot of information on the internet, and many techniques do not require a great deal of computer skill to pull it off.

A “SQL injection” search on Google will reveal 1.74 million search results. Not all of those websites will give step by step instructions on how to do it, but some do. Currently, according to the Veracode security report, 32% of web applications contain security flaws that could be exploited by SQL injection.  These flaws are not hard to identify, and are actually quite easy to fix. Many companies do not even test for them.

Hacking is increasing and data breaches are occurring much more frequently

More than half of data breaches are caused by hackers breaking into systems to steal data (or stealing data once they have broken into a system for other reasons). In 2011 and 2012, Veracode calculated that 52% of data breaches came as a result of web intrusions.

Interestingly, software is now being installed to tackle these vulnerabilities and far fewer security holes typically exist. The problem is more people are now looking for vulnerabilities to exploit.

Veracode found that unsecure software was the largest root cause of data loss. Its researchers discovered that 70% of software used by organizations does not even comply with enterprise data security policies.

Unless organizations take a more proactive approach and address these vulnerabilities as a priority, hackers will exploit the security holes and sabotage systems, hold companies to ransom, and steal data. To prevent data breaches, action must be taken and taken fast.