ICLOUD HACK – WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IF YOUR IPHONE OR ICLOUD GETS HACKED?

Data breaches happen almost on a daily basis. Just a few weeks ago, there were victims of security breaches attributed to employee negligence or misconduct. Criminals don’t always target high profile accounts. Phishing, scams, and social engineering can be used for purposes from identity theft to fraud and access to your employer’s database. The type of information a criminal can steal as well as the technology through which they can steal and have radically changed over the past years. Most specifically the threats, information types, and technology currently targeted are cloud-based, and via mobile devices, which can be intercepted, tracked or stolen. And more commonly iCloud hacks are pretty known.

There’s a huge grey area between cyber-criminals and white-hat hackers, who are usually hired by big tech companies to spot and report encryption and security flaws. Hackers aren’t always geniuses. It’s a common misconception that prevents both regular users and companies from taking the right measures to prevent cyber-attacks or respond appropriately.

WHAT THREAT IT HOLDS?

Regardless of motivation, anybody can be a target. Just how much do you risk to lose if your iCloud account has been hacked? It can cause you great harm:

IDENTITY THEFT

Identity theft can lead to reputational damage and unlawful use of your private information. Identity theft has been on the rise since 2014, with more than 15M US residents affected each year. Identity thieves scoop data from your social media posts, or hack iCloud account to impersonate you. The same information could be used to open bank accounts on your behalf.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CIA TRIAD

SOCIAL ENGINEERING & PHISHING

Social engineering & phishing attacks are more sophisticated. Pretending to be someone else (a website or a person), attackers can make the target trust them. Social engineering & phishing attacks leads to data breaches and access to sensitive information. By using this strategy they will trick the target into entering their credentials on a fake site, controlled by the attacker. The data submitted on the attacker’s site is then used to illegally access the target account.

RETAIL DATA HACKS

Retail data hacks often associated with data leaks around credit card and customer data. Earlier this year Wendy’s customer databases was infected by a malware that captured credit card data. On the black market, credit card data are available for sale. As mobile payment solutions become more popular, malware can be engineered to capture information at point-of-sale or from your device.

MOBILE SECURITY

Mobile security can lead to many types of damages, some of which are stated above. Smartphone vulnerabilities are easy to exploit by cybercriminals. Data breaches can be app-related or platform related. Sometimes, the phone itself can have a security flaw. Avoid installing any unusual app and check the vendor’s credentials to make sure they have security and encryption in place.

HOW FREQUENT DO FINGERPRINTS CHANGE?

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR ICLOUD ACCOUNT GET HACKED?

Cyber-attacks are so prevalent that it takes a lot of resources and energy to cover and understand all possible types of attacks. And to make this easier for you, here are some ways for you to prevent your iCloud account from being hacked.

In case you’ve been hacked you need. Your options are sometimes limited, but you still can do a lot of things to prevent additional damage.

FILE A REPORT

If someone claims they’ve stolen your data, or tries to blackmail you, it’s likely a criminal offence. If someone is bullying your child online or tried to get in touch with him in any way, contact the police and offer them all the data required.

TAKE BACK YOUR HACKED ACCOUNT

The main online services usually have various protection methods to prevent losing users accounts. Using these methods, you can recover a hacked account. To make this task easier, use these direct links to recover your online accounts: Apple, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft.

HOW MUCH SECURITY DOES A RETINAL SCAN OFFER?

UPDATE YOUR SECURITY QUESTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE HACKED ACCOUNTS

Activate two-factor authentication (2FA) on your devices or on your credit card. Any hacking attempt will be blocked before the start if you have this security feature active.

CHECK ALL ASSOCIATED ACCOUNTS

If you discover a hacked account and you change the password, this doesn’t mean your data is safe. You need to check all accounts associated with the hacked email because someone could access other data using credentials stolen from the first account hacked. For example, someone could access your cloud account if is associated with the hacked email. Make sure you also update these credentials.

DE-AUTHORIZE APPS ABLE TO ACCESS THESE ACCOUNTS

Sometimes an infected app is responsible for the hacking. By removing them or disabling the access to the hacked account you’ll avoid any new hack.

THE BEST INFORMATION SECURITY AUDIT CHECKLIST TO HELP YOU THRIVE

LOCK YOUR CREDIT CARD

If your credit card data has been exposed or if your account was used by a hacker, block it as soon as it possible. Based on a filed police report, your credit card can be blocked by your bank.

INSTALL ROBUST SECURITY SOFTWARE

You need to use decent anti-virus software to check whether a key logger, virus or malware is present on your machine.

UPDATE THE FIRMWARE OF YOUR AFFECTED DEVICE

The old versions of firmware or outdated operating systems usually have security issues. Make sure you update your devices, to prevent any security weakness.

WHAT IS INFORMATION RISK MANAGEMENT? UNDERSTAND IT BETTER!

TRY TO RECOVER YOUR DATA

If you’re the victim of ransomware you don’t have many options, especially if you don’t have a backup of your data. In case things go out of your hands feel free to contact the expert cyber security consultants at Securityx.