A Tough Question Answered: What do Hackers do, Anyway?

Of the many names that the Millennial Generation has earned, perhaps the most telling is the ‘technological generation.’ For the first time in the history of the earth, children are growing up with marvelous inventions like smartphones and tablets presented as everyday playthings and necessities.

In effect, young people everywhere are learning a second language, the language of technology. It’s perhaps most obvious when scanning a child’s text messages, but the effect of this development runs deep. And as the Economist points out, this change, often involving complex abbreviations and a whole new system of grammar, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just as we encourage students to learn ‘traditional’ languages, society may one day see the benefit of learning the tech language.

For example, it’s well-known that the more languages a person has at their disposal, the more likely different parts of the brain are to work with one another when solving new and complex problems. However, this new aptitude comes with its own problems and challenges, often with malicious players. These, of course, are the hackers that have been stealing headlines for the past few years as they pilfer valuable information and plenty of money without approaching anyone in the physical world.

What do Hackers do?

Hackers try to break into secure databases that hold valuable information. This information is often encrypted, with some secret key that allows people on the inside to use it productively while keeping intruders at bay. That’s the goal, anyway.

A hacker is someone who understands the technological language, the code, so well that what appears to be a meaningless jumble of numbers and letters is as clear and easy to understand as this very sentence. Thanks to this proficiency, hackers are able to sneak through defense systems to arrive at the important bits like credit card numbers, email account information, social security numbers, and other valuable digital information that drives so much of the financial life of the average American.

Hackers often work in groups to undermine firewalls, covering their tracks so that it sometimes takes months to discover a leak. Take Home Depot as an example. The retail giant recently revealed that over 50 million customer accounts were compromised in a concerted attack that affected every store across the nation. Perhaps the most impressive detail is that the attack went completely undetected for months, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This is just one example out of hundreds comprising a wave of attacks that has businesses and customers scrambling to protect information.

For example, POS system developers, such as Shopify, are taking extra care to provide only the highest level of security for customer information. And it’s not just corporations that are taking note. Hacking is a new front in warfare. The Guardian reports that Chinese hackers have, on multiple occasions, broken into US federal employee databases.

How do Hackers Make Money?

Once they obtain targeted information, hackers have several options. While it might seem obvious that a hacker would merely use the numbers obtained to steal directly from bank accounts, this method is a bit too much like that of a common thief for a sophisticated criminal, and many hackers fit the latter description, as evidenced by the number and scale of coordinated attacks like the assault on Home Depot’s system.

Instead of using credit card information themselves, which is often risky, hackers make money in the reaches of the deep web. That term has been floating around for a while now, but its definition often seems as nebulous as the unknown crimes committed within its shadowy environs. Simply put, the deep web is what goes on underneath the surface that you access with search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. It’s analogous to the conscious and unconscious mind, and the creatures living at the bottom are often just as dark.

Going Deeper

The web is composed of layers, with sites like Facebook and Wikipedia making up the very top, academic journals hovering somewhere in the middle, and the Tor network at the very bottom. That’s where hackers profit. The Tor network can only be found using special software that grants complete anonymity to the user. While that sounds freeing, and it is, it’s also where the web’s most nefarious activities take place.

From illegal pornography to drug-selling sites, the Tor network is a haven for criminal activity. It grants a special power to people who need to stay hidden, like political dissidents in foreign, or domestic, climates that fear repression for expressing their views. And, it’s where stolen credit cards are sold. Hackers use sites to sell credit card information, sometimes for as much as one hundred dollars per card. And while that may not sound worth the trouble, consider the scale of these latest heists, for the record; 50 million times $100 is $5 billion.

Of course, it’s unlikely that these major heists are fetching quite that much, but the numbers are astronomical in almost every case. That’s why it’s important to keep data secure.