On The Media: Darkode, Are We Really Safe?

I am seriously in shock after listening to Radiolab regarding hackers. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve known that hacking has existed but this has shown me the extent of which it could happened but people will make it somewhat of a profession. When I picture hackers, I think of individuals who are really into gaming and someone who blocks out reality. I feel like people participate in hacking because it gives them some sort of satisfaction because they struggle to have a social life. I was already frightened of having my information stolen from hackers simply from watching shows and movies. The difference is in movies and shows, it’s all scripted but when I hear about a real life situation, it immediately helps open my eyes to all the creeps out there trying to steal information.

I have an example that happened earlier this summer when I was home for the 4 month break. I remember that my mom and I just finished working out and we were headed to the gas station. All of the sudden she received this call from an unknown number (she doesn’t answer blocked id calls) but she didn’t pick up forcing the person to leave a voicemail. While we were at the gas station getting gas, she listened to the voice message and was shocked by the information that she heard. It was supposedly the IRS calling about her not paying her taxes or something like that (I don’t actually remember) but she knew that she did pay and was confused by the call so she decided to call back. I could hear the guy on the other end and he sounded very corny and false, the weird part was that a woman left the voicemail but a man answered the phone when she called back. To make it even weirder, they had the same exact last name like they were married. Anyway, the guy said that my mom had to send like $200,000 to them in Washington D.C. by a certain date or she would have to deal with it in court. She began to question this guy’s credibility and asked him when was the date she was supposed to pay, he said, “I’m not sure but we have it in our records.” Then she asked, “Where (address) do I send the money,” and he became very irritated and responded, “We don’t have an address….you know what, we’ll just see you in court.” The whole thing was fishy and she called some people and found out that it was some people trying to hack her.

Physical: Hackers have been around ever since the birth of computers and people have been learning of new tricks to have access to someone else’s private settings. That’s why it’s important to watch the things that you post online because it will stay out there forever and there are disgusting people who will search for you and gather as much information as they want.

Psychological: You have to really question the credibility of any given website because you never know the kind of resources they have to save your personal information when you sign up for something. Hackers are creative people and will have certain strategies and gimmicks to bait people into distributing their information.

Cultural: I mean obviously, this is not something that only happens in America, it’s all over the world. I mean the example was the woman in Russia and the scary things about hackers is they can also be anywhere in the world. The Internet is seriously a powerful tool and the person behind the keyboard can be in another country or your next door neighbor.

Social: Hackers are NOT your friends, they will simply use you and persuade you into disclosing information with them and once they receive that, they’ll drop you. A lot of hackers are aggressive and won’t try and play the friendly card, they will threaten you to the point where you are scared and feel like you have no way out. Remember they’re just some individual hiding behind a screen but that alone gives them extreme power.

Temporal: With technology growing, I think people have also become more aware of their surroundings and won’t always sign up for random sites anymore. You can tell when you’re signing up for something like Instagram for example and they ask for your address, there is really no need to have to give them your address because what does that have to do with uploading pictures unless you want them to know about your location.