Page 59 - 31DEC2018E

TECHNOLOGY

New playground to trap collect huge information about the tar- Hackers generally $50..$100. Using two dots like this “..” will

get veterans before launching any direct
help you to find mobile prices ranging
use search engines
attack. Common people don’t know and
from 50 to 100 dollars only.
soldiers for information even don’t have any faint idea of how a in unique ways tion where you may want to compare
Combining searches is another op-
hacker uses this skill for gathering pas-
to collect huge
between two closely related words like
sive information about any target. Refin-
ing web searches can be made easy with
the help of Google search. Hackers can information ‘army’ and ‘navy’. To narrow down your
chase write “OR” between these two
use symbols or words in their searches about the target words — army OR navy.
low down a bit. There’s a trap Army veterans are now being targeted on social media by hackers of to make the search results more precise. By now you have probably known that
somewhere along here. Us- When someone uses these tech - veterans before extensions are generally used for domain
ing subterfuge to gain entry the ‘enemy’ countries, reports SANJIB SINHA launching any specifications like “.gov” usually stands
is not a new trick. It has been for government sites. In such cases sim-
S done before through various ing them with misinformation, con - direct attack ply put “site:” before a site or domain like
forms in the past. Now, the social media spiracy theories, and other forms of junk this: ‘site:xyz.com’ or ‘site:.gov’, or ‘site:.
is the new playground for trapping old news about military affairs and national search the social media about a person mil’.
guys, especially army veterans who want security issues. Recently the same thing or organization. In that case, one can There are other sites that are related
to connect to their former colleagues happened in the US where through Fa- place ‘@’ sign in front of a word to search to one specific site and the hacker may
through Facebook pages. The findings cebook and Twitter, a broad network of social media. If you want to get informa- need to get results about them also. In
and the report is mind boggling. extremists has targeted the veterans the tion about a veteran like “Sanjib Sinha” in such cases, you can use the term “related”.
Using this trick is super easy in a same way. Researchers have found the social media then just writing @sanjib- Write “related:xyz.com”. Other sites asso-
country like India which has recently persistent interactions between current sinha will give tons of information. ciated with ‘xyz.com’ will automatically
beaten countries like the US, UK and and former military personnel and the For social media, “hashtags” are popu- fall prey to the hunting spree.
China in the race of gaining the top post impersonators hired by the foreign ene- lar to find out your favorite words that Want more information and go deep
on the chart of ‘Internet Addiction’. Now, my country. In Facebook, the researchers are trending at present. In Google search, into the details of any site? Just put “info:”
82 percent of Indian Internet users can- have experienced the same thing: there you may write the word like this: #word. in front of the site address like this —
not live without the Internet as per the are pages dedicated to the military and Making the search more specific and info:xyz.com.
data collated by Statista, the survey was veterans that have significant and per- pinpointed is a real challenge. To do that Usually, Google keeps the cached
conducted by IPSOS. Old and young alike, sistent interactions with the subgroups one may need to omit few words. There version of many sites those do not
people are connected now; in countries dedicated to the political conspiracy are lots of words that have similarity and exist anymore. You may want to check
such as India, where the net-addiction theories. it’s impossible for Google algorithm to whether such cached versions exist or
rate is so high, old people could easily fall To the researchers’ astonishment, it make a differentiation between them. not. Put “cache:” before the site address
prey to the trap laid by the hackers hired has been found that many subgroups Suppose you want to know the speed — cache:xyz.com or about someone like
by the enemy country. They are lured to spend quality time consuming the fake of a tiger. Now there might be a brand this — cache:sanjibsinha.
the misinformation and junk news about and junk news targeting the democracy of car that has also been called ‘tiger’. In Particularly in a country like India
military affairs. and the veterans suddenly begin to suf- such cases, Google brings all the relevant the challenge is immense. The low tech-
Last year, an Oxford study revealed fer from such wrong, misinformation. measurement – the speed of the animal literacy and ailing health can create vul-
this truth first: military veterans are It has also been found that the military alongside the speed of the car. If you nerabilities for old veterans, in the US we
ripe targets for such exploitation by en- and the veterans are among the most don’t want the speed of car then you can saw in 2015 a massive OPM data-breach
emy countries. Why they are targeted? place ‘-’ before the word ‘car’. So finally took place where the cyber-attack com-
According to the report, veterans are sophisticated news consumers and as niques, “Google Search” usually takes no the search phrase will stand like this: promised background check informa-
more likely than the average person to Veterans participate they play the community roles effective- notice of punctuation, which isn’t part of ‘tiger speed –car’. tion for nearly every soldier who had re-
be community leaders and they partici- ly, it is easier to convince them with the a search operator so better one omits it You may want to search for an exact ceived a security clearance since the Iraq
pate in community culture more actively in community culture misinformation. in the very beginning. The hacker does match of any word like ‘Sanjib Sinha war began. In our country we need to be
than average citizens; it is also true that more actively than While targeting the veterans enemy not include spaces between the sym- army infantry’. In that case, your search aware of these facts and take suitable ac-
their political opinions are momentous hackers do some kind of reconnaissance bols or words and the search terms. In must be double quoted: “Sanjib Sinha tions if needed.
determiner on those around them. average citizens; using search engine giants such as Goog- the course of time, if one writes “site:xyz. army infantry”.
Sensing that, foreign powers, imper- le. And that is also not a very difficult task, com”, then this will work. However, if any You may want to search wildcards of —The writer is an author and ethical
sonating individuals and organisations, their political indeed. How do the hackers often use space is given between them like this – an unknown word with star sign “*” like hacker. As a published author, Microsoft’s
target the veterans and try to gain their opinions are Google for reconnaissance? For informa- “site: xyz.com” then it will not work. this: “Sanjib Sinha * air force”. community contributor award winner,
trust. What the hackers are doing now tion gathering anyone can use his simple There are many common search Sometimes searching within a range Sanjib Sinha has written several books,
is not a very advanced level of breach of momentous technique which sometimes could bear techniques through Google search that of numbers is necessary. Suppose you’re including the best selling security book
trust or spoofing; the method is simple: determiner on lots of fruits. can be used to gather passive informa- looking for a mobile within price range “Beginning Ethical Hacking with Python”
gain the trust by impersonating organi- Though it seems trivial at first glance, tion to gather information about the 50 and 100 dollars. In that case, you may for Apress.
zations that veterans rely on. Bombard- those around them hackers generally use search engines to target. Suppose the hacker wants to zero down your hunt this way: mobile LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

TEHELKA / 31 DECEMBER 2018 58 WWW.TEHELKA.COM TEHELKA / 31 DECEMBER 2018 59 WWW.TEHELKA.COM

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