Hacked SBS links to risky content

This year would have to be the year of sites being hacked with hackers placing malware onto a company’s sites with the intention of infecting people’s computers.

The web site of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) has been victim of a hacking attack over the weekend, with users visiting the site exposed to malware.... Read More

I’d highly recommend that you update your browser with the latest patches on a regular basis. Make sure you have an anti-virus program installed and perform a quick scan of your system perhaps weekly and add a full scan to your schedule of things to do on a regular basis.

If you own a site and think this only happens to others then think again. A couple of years ago a site of mine was hacked and I subsequently moved service providers. More recently I’ve been contacted a number of time by businesses who have had their sites hacked and ask for advice and guidance. My approach is that when I read something in the news I take notice. But when it happens to someone I know then it is time to take action and let others know it is happening and people need to be aware.

The biggest issue I see is most online services do not provide adequate information for us to see if our sites are being targeted. As a result we often think everything is OK. How do you know if someone is trying to hack into your Hotmail, Gmail or Facebook account. The answer is you don’t. With a my bank it shows me the last time the account was used and the last transaction. With online services anyone right now could be accessing my online accounts and because there is no information provided, I’d have no idea if I’d been hacked or if people are trying to hack my accounts. The same is true of your online accounts.

The best you can do is to minimise your exposure and make sure that whatever you make available online is what you’d be able to handle if someone accessed your information.

That reminds me. I must go and transfer some money out of PayPal. Yes one of the businesses I know had their PayPal account hacked.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au