Hacking Your Entire Life

What I am about to tell you should fill you with fear. And no, I am not exaggerating for effect. This information could literally change your life.

Most of us are spending an increasing amount of time online. We shop, do our banking, search for information and share aspects of our lives on social media.

If you are like me you also store a lot of important information on your computer – passwords, personal information and account numbers.

You might think that data is secure. But it’s not.

A single click in the wrong place can allow a hacker to access the digital contents of your entire life and turn it upside down.

Apparently nothing is safe, not your car remote access, your mobile phone or your wifi connection.

The data you download and send is used to surveil you. Your personal preferences are used for profit – where you are the product being sold.

That information is also a treasure trove for those wanting to steal your identity and steal your money.

Someone pinching your money might seem like the worst thing that can happen but in the main, banks will back you up where fraud has occurred. It might take a bit of time but you’ll generally get your money back.

But what if someone steals your entire identity?  Believe me it’s possible, even with the most basic of techniques.

Here’s how someone can get access to your mobile phone account

Imagine if they then use that data to redirect the two factor identification codes that are so often used to verify identity. The cascading effect can build a virtual you they can then use to impersonate and defraud.

If they do, it can take years to correct the digital record and the damage done.

Your credit score can be smashed, you can be blacklisted from having accounts with even the most basic services like electricity and gas.

Incredibly, there is even a convention for hackers to show off their skills. It’s called Def Con and the Def Con 29 is scheduled for Augusts 5 -8 of this year.

Not everyone who attends is a black hat hacker – they are the ones who want to do you harm. Most are ‘white hat’ hackers who look for flaws in code so they can be rectified.

DefCon even have hacking war-games, they are competitions designed to demonstrate that almost no system is safe.

If you’ve been around long enough you’ll understand when I say it’s like a real life version of the old spy v spy cartoons in Mad Magazine.

It’s also a place that people go to learn how to protect themselves, including governments who are always playing catch-up with the bad guys.