Inside the mind of a cybercriminal

Amanda Patience
4 min readNov 1, 2022

How do cybercriminals think when they enter your association? What do they search for? Also, how might you utilize this knowledge to safeguard your business?

Hackers want in. They want into the business, its information, and its subtleties since cybercrime is a booming business and there is a lot of benefit in phishing, stolen data, and ransomware. They dive into your business and they utilize each loophole and weakness they can find, whether that is your frameworks or your people. Their methodologies adhere to a few guideline steps, although these can change contingent upon the objective. Ultimately, Anna Collard, SVP of Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa mentions:

“Cybercriminals truly do have a few steps they normally follow, although these can occur in an alternate request or some can be skirted en route, these are the most widely recognized manners by which they approach a business,” she says. “They begin with surveillance where they are attempting to more deeply study their objective — including what equipment and programming you run, your email addresses, representative names, and different subtleties that could give them an edge with regards to arranging an effective assault.”

When they have the data, they then, at that point, plan their assault. They could utilize root access found through robotized malware that can be brought into the framework by means of a USB key, a human blunder, or a weakness. It is more straightforward than the vast majority acknowledge to be fooled into downloading and executing a vindictive program that introduces itself and takes care of business. Clients and organizations can limit this gamble by guaranteeing all their web confronting and security frameworks are state-of-the-art and by continually checking any downloads, applications, and end-focuses for malware.

“If you have any desire to safeguard against digital assaults, you really want to take on a similar mindset as a vindictive programmer and know the devices and methods that they use so you can shield against them,” says Collard. “The principal thing is to quit agonizing such a great amount over what the programmers need and more about how they will get it. Utilizing the house analogy, this is identical to ensuring the entryways are locked, there are bars on the windows and there is definitely not a simple passage in the cellar.”

The following step is to ponder the sort of assault vector that is probably going to be used against your association and then set up measures to safeguard against them. While this is as yet a proportion of mystery and ought not to be the main protective piece of your stance, it assists you with building a more powerful security approach. This is an information-driven guarded position — it utilizes data and bits of knowledge to evaluate the most probable kinds of assault so you are safeguarded against them.

“You want to guarantee that you fabricate a blend of defenses,” says Collard. “This is covering strategies, specialized guards, preparation, and different kinds of safety that permit you to have even more of a security network around your business. It likewise guarantees you don’t wind up ignoring a basic piece of your business and coincidentally leaving a weakness totally open.”

Preparing is significant. Workers need to realize that they are really one of the organization’s most gone-after targets and how to safeguard against this. They need to know how to recognize phishing endeavors, how to try not to commit clear errors, and how to evade the not-really-clear slip-ups. On the off chance that individuals are on guard and mindful of how a straightforward error can cost them and their organization, they will then, at that point, move from being a responsibility to a necessary piece of the association’s security defenses.

“Cybercriminals are continuously going to be attempting new techniques, new infections, new dangers, that is their work,” says Collard. “Organizations need to make distinguishing and safeguarding against these assaults an aspect of their responsibilities — part of their representative’s work. Like that, security shifts from being something individual seen as torment or as a drawn-out box-ticking activity to a propensity, to a central piece of the workplace culture. Also, that mindfulness and carefulness will place the association in the most ideal spot with regards to security.”

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Amanda Patience

Creative Writer, Techprenuer and Team Lead at Zuk Technologies.