Most hackers claim they are able to break into their victims' computer systems, determine their most valuable data and extract it within 15 hours, according to recent survey exploring the minds of hackers.
In its 2018 Black Report, cybersecurity, risk and compliance software company Nuix sought to explore the disconnect between organizations' presumed cyber defenses and real-world threats by talking to hackers.
Here are 10 things to know about hackers.
1. Most hackers (43 percent) are college graduates, while 32 percent are postgraduates and 14 percent are high school graduates.
2. A majority of hackers (86 percent) said they hack because they like the challenge, while others said they hack for fun (35 percent) or financial gain (21 percent).
3. Across all industry sectors, hackers claim a breach takes more than 15 hours (46 percent) while in healthcare specifically, hackers can complete a breach in less than five hours (23 percent).
4. Hackers cited network attacks (28 percent) as their favorite to execute, followed by social engineering (27 percent) and phishing (22 percent).
5. Most hackers (77 percent) claim they are identified by their targets less than 15 percent of the time.
6. When asked whether they believe security professionals understand what they are looking for when safeguarding their systems, 74 percent of hackers said no.
7. Fifty-nine percent of hackers said they rarely (5 to 15 percent of the time) encounter a system they cannot break into. Hackers cited host system hardening (34 percent) and intrusion detection systems (18 percent) as the top challenges to overcome.
8. Hackers rated the impact of security programs to prevent a hack, citing employee education (26 percent) and goal-oriented penetration testing (26 percent) as the two most critical techniques.
9. Almost 90 percent of hackers claim they are able to cover their tracks after a breach in less than 30 minutes.
10. Thirty-seven percent of hackers said new tools or techniques are released every one to two months that help them hack more effectively.
Click here to access the complete report.
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