Professional hacker with over 30 years experience shares just how vulnerable our online systems really are
The anonymous man has revealed some of the scariest things he's seen while hacking.
Featured Image Credit: VICE
If you think you know how hacking works, think again.
Sure, we're all aware of identity theft and financial crimes, but the reality is there are loads of ways it can happen - and an experienced hacker has outlined how vulnerable we all really are in a Vice video.
The anonymous guy said he used to be a "black hat" - a hacker who wasn't bound by an ethical code.
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But now, he's a "white hat hacker" - someone who is, in his words, "bound by the law".
This often means he finds vulnerabilities in systems and then alerts the authorities in question, to let them know that they need to shore up their defences and fix certain issues.
As he talks about the various ways that hackers work right now, one of the scariest sections is about so-called "ransomware". This is basically when hackers take control of your system, lock it down so that they alone can access it, then demand you pay them a ransom to get it all back.
It's pretty scary stuff, not just because of the way they are able to take control, but also because of the amount of contact you have to have with the gangs who perpetrate the crime.
As the white hat hacker in the video explains, it's generally not a simple choice to pay or not pay - he says he's seen hospitals be hacked, with the people in charge having to ask themselves the question: "Do I pay to decrypt the data or do I risk lives?".
That's a terrifying quandary, and the idea that hackers are willing to target institutions like hospitals is pretty despicable.
And the hacker says that the potential rewards from ransomware attacks like this have gone from being in the hundreds or thousands to "easily in the tens of millions".
He describes a recent attack that demanded 70 million dollars to undo the hack, a huge amount of money that highlights the seriousness of the crime.
While some people are in it for the money, though, he also says that there "are some people who want to see the world burn" and will therefore do basically whatever they can to cause destruction and chaos.
That's a depressing thought, and it doesn't get any better. The hacker says: "Every single country has some reason to weaponize these kinds of attacks, and the less scrupulous countries are the ones that are using it right now, because it's the perfect form of asymmetric warfare."
The interview is conducted anonymously, so there's obviously no way to verify everything he's saying, but it's a pretty stark reminder of how vulnerable we all can be online - even if we think everything's chill.