When one machine isn’t enough, hackers enlist an army of unsuspecting devices called a botnet to speed up their efforts. Hijacking your system for malicious activity.
Alternatively, they may directly infect a site with concealed malware to be installed on visitor’s computers. If a hacker wants to cause trouble or practice their skills, they might redirect a website’s traffic to malicious sites. Spreading malware to cause disruptions for the sake of it. Sometimes, sensitive databases from entire organizations can be exposed in corporate-level data breaches. All it takes is the right break-in for a criminal to steal your identity, money, or sell your private credentials for profit. Data is sold to advertisers without your consent to help them improve their marketing.īreaking into online accounts can be like cracking open a bank vault: everything from bank accounts to tax information can be found online.
Hijacking your system for malicious activity.Profiting from ads or collecting activity data.Here’s how hackers benefit from brute force attacks: While technology does make it easier, you might still question: why would someone do this? What do hackers gain from Brute Force Attacks?īrute force attackers have to put in a bit of effort to make these schemes pay off. Because depending on the length and complexity of the password, cracking it can take anywhere from a few seconds to many years. This is an old attack method, but it's still effective and popular with hackers. These attacks are done by ‘brute force’ meaning they use excessive forceful attempts to try and ‘force’ their way into your private account(s). Hackers work through all possible combinations hoping to guess correctly. A brute force attack uses trial-and-error to guess login info, encryption keys, or find a hidden web page.