Alright guys let's talk about Hacking. What is it and how you can protect yourself.

I'll start by saying this: Hacking is not really what you see in movies A hacker's screen doesn't look like this GIF with green characters all over the screen. They're bullshitting you.

Hacking is the forced unauthorized access (or attempt) to a computer or a network. It's when someone tries to force themselves into your computer or network.

There are different types of Hacker. Not all hackers are bad believe it or not. They are categorized into 3 types:
1. White hat
2. Black hat
3. Gray hat

White hat hackers:

These guys hack systems to find vulnerabilities. They do this to protect systems from hackers ( surprising right???). They are hired by companies to perform penetration tests and find any loop holes that can make companies vulnerable to attack

Black hat hackers:

These are the guys to be VERY afraid of.
The guys hack your computer to steal information, destroy it or just to prevent you from using it because they can. Their type is hacking is always destructive.

Grey hat Hackers:

We can say grey hackers are people who have the knowledge and skills to hack systems (like the other hackers) but they don't do it with malicious intent like black hats. Their hacks can still be destructive. I consider myself one of these guys.

Alright cool, now you know what hacking is and the different types of hackers. Lets talk about a few ways you can get hacked:

Note: There is a high chance that your personal info (email, password) is somewhere on the internet already (look at point #1 below)

1. Data breach:

This is when your data is stolen from websites/services that you give your data to. It happened here when Experian was hacked and data was compromised.
Hackers hack and get access to users info from different service providers.

Basically someone gets access to an organisation (e.g. Experian) and steals user information (our information).
This is very dangerous because some people use the same passwords for many different websites. I'll touch on this later in the thread...

2. Social engineering

This is when hackers pretend to be someone they're not and steal your info
Example: a website that says it can show you who blocked you on twitter. You go onto the website,it looks legit so you enter you twitter credentials unknowingly. YOU'VE BEEN HACKED!

3. Man in the middle

For those who follow me and saw my tweet about wanting to record a video showing y'all how I can hack and see people's information, this is the type of hacking I will be doing

Ok so a little bit of background first: when computers/devices are on a network

... they are connected. This means they can see each other.
To see this, when you get to the office, click on the net work link on your computer. You'll see all the computers/devices in your work network (Ntombi's PC, Reception PC, CEO's media player etc)

This is a private network and it's usually secure and protected (by "the IT guys in the office" ).
The wifi you connect to at Starbucks or News Cafe ko Rosebank is the opposite of this. It's a public network.
This is where the danger comes in and this is how I will be hacking

When you are connected to a public hotspot in a coffee shop you are actually connected to all of us in that coffee shop. Not only am I able to see your device on the network, I can see AND manipulate all your network traffic if it's insecure. I can point you to fake websites...

where I can capture your information before redirecting you to the real website. I do this by walking into that coffee shop, setting up a hotspot from my phone and changing the SSID (name of wifi) to something believable like "Coffee XYZ shop Rosebank". You come into the coffee..

...shop and switch on your wifi, see "Coffee shop XYZ Rosebank" and connect (because it seems legit right?). At this point I own you . You're in MY network and I can see everything you're doing.

Alright cool. Now let's talk about how to protect yourself from these ways of getting hacked.

You see I'm a good guy, I'm here to help you my beloveds

1. Data breach:

Firstly go to https://haveibeenpwned.com/  and enter your email address to check if your email has been exposed somewhere on the internet during a data breach at one of the many websites you use

I entered mine and saw that it has been exposed when LinkedIn was hacked

It will show you the websites/services from which YOUR information was exposed.
1. Go to those websites and change your passwords. Activate 2 factor auth if it's available.

2. Social engineering

To avoid getting hacked this way:
Don't click on links you're unsure of. Don't give our your personal info to the guys who call you and tell you the first 6 digits of your Id and ask you to complete it if you're unsure of their identity.

I know many of you won't like this one but stop playing these stupid twitter games that ask your to login using your twitter credentials. Some of these websites get access to permissions that go beyond their scope.
A website for playing that "anonymous message" game shouldn't...

Have permissions to access/send DMs. This is why some of your accounts send DMs on your behalf and your followers get weird website link DMs from you "here's a link for you". Stop playing these dumb games without checking what they actually do

3. Man in the middle attack

To avoid getting hacked this way:
Avoid public WiFis. Simple.
You can never be safe from this type of hacking if you connect to every public WiFi you find. If you're a a restaurant and don't have data, take pictures of your food and post them later

General methods to protect yourself:

1. Don't use the same password from all the websites you use. Come on now
2. Use google's "suggest password" and let google generate strong passwords for you. This is what I do. When you do this, activate sync on your google account...

This will sync all your passwords between all your devices that use google services so you'll always have these passwords.

"But Brian what if someone hacks Google and steals these suggested passwords?". Well my love, if someone hacks google we are all fucked

There's been a data breach at one of the companies whose services I use. Literally a few hours after I wrote this thread, I'm told they've been hacked and my personal info has been leaked https://twitter.com/brian_royalb/status/1296789389612392449?s=19