Hacking is becoming an increasing problem: “But our systems will also become more secure”

It has been known for some time that hackers sell your online login details via the internet. Usually it concerns logins and passwords of banks or e-mail accounts. But what does the future look like? Business AM spoke with Bavo Van den Heuvel, co-founder and Chief Knowledge Officer of Cranium.

Listen to the interview with Bavo Van den Heuvel here:

Recently is Genesis Market still flattened. But what exactly did they do?

“When you Web banking from home, the bank will carry out a number of security checks. One of those elements in the security checks is about the device you use. The bank knows whether you use a MacBook or a Windows computer. Those are metadataor data about your computer that the bank uses as a security mechanism,” says Van den Heuvel.

“It’s those digital ones fingerprint that were stolen by Genesis Market and then sold. For example, hackers could misuse it to mislead a bank through that digital information, for example fingerprint actually take over. There are approximately 1.5 million accounts to which the data has been resold.”

Do hacked people know about it?

“You can see for yourself whether you were involved in the hack. There is a website haveibeenpwned where you can see if you are involved in the hack, but few people know about this website. The hackers were able to collect that information by malware to install on your computer. That is malicious software that is sent through a phishingattack or has been compromised on your system in any other way.”

Solutions

“Two factor authentication is a strong measure against hacks. You have your username and your password, but then there is an additional code via your mobile or SMS that you use. And that is already a very good protection against those hackers. An example of this is itsme.“

“There are other ways. Nowadays, the banks communicate with customers via the app and no longer via e-mail. But if we look at it at a business level, it’s certainly not a bad idea to have a next generation firewall on your system.”

Future perspective

“Now that everything is happening online, there will be even more attempts to shut down entire systems. But our systems will also become increasingly secure. Banks will invest intensively in analyzing transactions themselves.”

“If you are in Belgium today, Israel tomorrow and Australia the day after tomorrow and that is not the normal way to travel, then that is going to be a suspicious transaction. And then you may not be able to make a transfer at the bank or you will be called by the bank. Banks will therefore also apply intelligent systems to detect abnormal behaviour,” concludes Van den Heuvel.

(n.d.)