What Happens When a Hacker Attacks an Ordinary Person?

The most important news about cyberattacks usually focuses on high-profile targets like corporations and government agencies, but even if the odds are low, the average user can also be hacked, and when an expert applies all their skills... maybe there are no limits. A journalist decided to be the "voluntary victim" of hackers for two weeks, and the results were chilling.

If someone decides to attend the DEF CON conference, they must understand very well that they need to tread carefully, especially if they know nothing about computer security. In general, those who walk through that place only want to show off their skills, but in such an environment, being cautious is a very good idea. Enthusiasts and computer experts display their skills in surprising ways, but the most disturbing thing is that in some cases, they don't need to write a single line of code. Journalist Kevin Roose from Real Future went to Las Vegas in August 2015 to experience the DEF CON 23 activity up close, and carried out a very risky experiment:

How could a hacker ruin your life?

The first participants were Chris Hadnagy and Jessica Clark from Social Engineer Inc, a company that evaluates the "human vulnerabilities" of other companies, like an employee who during a normal work session simply gives away too much information. With a bit of "vishing" (voice phishing), a YouTube video of a baby crying, a desperate tone in her voice, and a hint of "spoofing" on the phone number, Jessica managed to get Roose's personal email address in 30 seconds, but that's not all: through false information, she also created her own personal access route to Roose's account... and she was able to change his password. All this, with "zero" code.

Roose decided to turn up the heat a bit and sought out security researcher Dan Tentler, who started his "attack" on Roose with a fake link that seemed to be from Squarespace, the CMS where Roose has his blog. Roose clicked the link... and that was it. Keychain password, banking information, social security number, his stocks, RATting (two days of surveillance)... in short, total and absolute identity theft.

Finally, Roose explored the possibility of a hacker attacking not an individual, but infrastructure. That led him to talk to Marina Krotofil from the European Network for Cyber Security. The riskiest target? Satellites, GPS. Oil tankers navigate automatically, and any attack on the system could cause an economic and ecological disaster. The whole video isn't even 12 minutes long, but it's worth every second.

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