What is a Brute Force Attack and What Can You Do About It.

Over the years the number of internet users has increased. This can be viewed by the growing number of people who have access to the internet. People all over the world have access to laptops, smartphones, and other gadgets. There are also growing numbers of online business transactions for online shops, banking, and trade via social media. All these are evidence of the tremendous growth of access and use of the internet.

However, even with positive news of the growing numbers of internet numbers, one cannot forget the dangers faced.  There is a rise in criminal offenses on the internet among which is the “Brute Force Attack.” This is carried out by a hacker. 

This article is therefore going to discuss what a brute force attack is, examples and types of the attack, and the aims of the attacker. It will also cover ways to curb this type of attack.

The section below introduces to you what the brute force attack is, the ways it is done, types and aims of an attacker.

1. What is a brute force attack?

According to Kaspersky brute force attack is the use of a trial and error guess to log information, hidden web pages or encryption keys. It is referred to as “brute force” because the hacker uses many forceful attacks to get into someone’s private account.  Here the hacker repeatedly submits different passwords, pins with hope of succeeding by getting a correct password or pin. 

2. What are the aims of the attacker?

The attacker wants to access your personal and confidential information and steal sensitive information.

The hacker aims at spreading malicious malware to the person’s website or gadgets.

The hacker may also have intentions of damaging the business or your reputation. This is often done on social media platforms. 

3. Ways a brute force attack is done.

By posting spam advertisements on a site that you are visiting. These are mainly in the form of a promise to win a prize like money in case you tap the pop-up advert.

By infecting someone’s website or gadget with malware. This can be a virus that damages or destroys your files.

This vice can be curbed in different ways or means. The section below discusses ways in which brute force attack can be curbed.

What you can do about Brute force attacks?

PASSWORDS

To avoid attacks of such nature you need to work on your password in different ways namely:

1. The strength of your password.

You can strengthen your password by making its length longer. Include upper and lower case letters, numbers, letters, and symbols. This makes the password very complex for the hacker which may cause him or her discouraged hence giving up their attempts. You can also develop a strong password combination.

2. Frequently change your passwords.

3. Develop different and unique passwords for every account that you have. 

LIMIT LOGIN ATTEMPTS

Whenever you attempt to get into your accounts and failed to do so allow it to go through the process of clearing the attempts. It gives the site or gadget time to also identify what the issue is.

reCAPTCHA

CAPTCHA is known as Completely Automated Public Turning To Tell Computers and Humans Apart. This is a good way to capture any spasm from a hacker. A CAPTCHA is mainly a combination of numbers, letters or images. Its purpose is to tell the difference between humans and robots.

TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

Different sites and organizations have developed the two-factor approach. This is practiced by Google and Facebook among others. It is a two-way of identifying and determining whether the person using the site is a real and authentic person. Here the person signs into the account using their password. A verification code is then sent to the person who enters it into the system. This process seeks to protect the user and their information.