Since so many people are switching to online banking, it’s no surprise that hackers are looking for login information. What may surprise you is the extent to which these criminals would go to gain access to your cash. It’s beneficial to know how hackers break into bank accounts. Here are some of the practical ways online hackers might access your funds and drain you.
Man-in-the-Middle Attacks: Intercepting Your Data
Hackers may target connections that you have with your bank’s website to obtain your information. These attacks are called Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks, and the name says it all; it happens when a hacker intercepts communication between you and an authorized banking service. An MITM attack often entails watching an unprotected server and analyzing the information that flows over it. When you send your login information through this network, the hackers detect and steal it.
Mobile Banking: A New Target for Hackers
You may now manage all of your money from your smartphone. A bank will usually provide an official app via which you may log in and check your account. Though it is essential, malware makers, however, use it as a significant attack vector.
Phishing Scams: Manipulating Victims Online
Phishing (pronounced as fishing). You’ve certainly seen this as an internet user. To get access to your internet credentials, a hacker will attempt to impersonate legitimate parties such as large tech businesses (Microsoft), your bank, or even your loved ones, if you have weak network security. They’ll manipulate your emotions and try to instill a sense of urgency in you. They’ll even phone you sometimes! Email is a typical method of phishing. The attacker will fake or closely replicate the email address of a firm you trust.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): How Hackers Exploit Vulnerabilities
Cross-Site Request Forgery, sometimes known as CSRF, can be extremely harmful. What a hacker can accomplish with CSRF entirely depends on the functionality that is being exploited. An attacker will imitate a trusted website, like your bank’s website, but any transfers you make will go directly into the attacker’s bank account. As the name implies, this vulnerability originates from a single domain (such as one that the attacker controls), which enables the attacker to simulate a series of websites used for phishing.
Broken Access Control: How Hackers Bypass Security
Broken Access Control is difficult to detect, granting attackers access to all types of capabilities they are not authorized to have. For example, obtaining all users’ information with a single request. The intricacy stems from the fact that there are several endpoints buried behind functionality that may never be reached during pen testing.
Hackers can take advantage of broken access control since teams frequently remove front-end buttons to gain access to specific functionality but fail to deactivate the endpoint. Perhaps testers did not test for BAC with all user groups, including custom user groups.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): Exploiting Vulnerabilities
Insecure Direct Object References are easy to attack and can be easily discovered by a hacker. They cause havoc in the manner you might expect: they get into your accounts, credit card details, and e-wallets. IDORs arise when resources that are meant to be hidden (for instance, your address) and only available to particular users are made available (the website admin). When developers fail to enforce sufficient Authorization controls, hackers will test every single item by altering the ID or by establishing two accounts and utilizing the session headers to optimize their search.
Hackers can get personal information and perhaps acquire access to the feature that updates the email addresses of accounts, allowing the attackers to request a new password after changing an account’s email address to their own. You can imagine what the hacker has access to if this is a financial program with lax protection. The majority of IDORs are hidden.
Conclusion
Most individuals use online banking, with over 30% utilizing a digital-only bank. Unfortunately, this also implies that internet financial fraud is on the rise. Customers and hackers both benefit from Internet banking. Fortunately, you can follow some steps to avoid being a victim of these attacks. By keeping your information secure, hackers will have nothing to work with when attempting to steal your money. Now that you’re aware of the ingenious methods used by hackers to access your bank account, why not take your banking security to the next level? There are several ways to protect your cash from hackers, ranging from routinely changing your password to just reviewing your statement every month.
