What is Fake Hacking?

Malicious actors have much to gain from successful attacks: whether a bloated ego, a reputation, or direct financial gain – often all three at once. Fake hacking is a niche approach to this: wherein an attacker simulates a hacking attempt without actually compromising or infiltrating a system.

This deceptive activity is performed by novices and experienced black hat groups with advanced technical knowledge. The goal for both types of attackers is to convince their victim of compromise – which can itself be used to push the victim into a panicked and compromising position.

Hacking point Security check up

How Does Fake Hacking Work?

Fake hacking works by leveraging social engineering techniques and deceptive tactics to make the target believe their system has been compromised, without any actual security breach. These schemes exploit the lack of technical knowledge in users, creating a false sense of urgency or fear.

Common methods include:

Websites designed to simulate a hacking interface, giving the illusion of real-time system compromise by mimicking command-line outputs or terminal screens.
E-mails de phishing crafted to falsely claim that ransomware has infiltrated the system, often using technical jargon to appear legitimate.
Fake website alerts that use scripted warnings to indicate a breach, typically prompting the user to pay for non-existent cybersecurity solutions.
Pop-ups designed to resemble legitimate security warnings, claiming the presence of ransomware or other severe malware, when in reality, the system may only be affected by low-risk adware or benign programs.

These tactics manipulate the target’s perception rather than exploiting actual technical vulnerabilities – making it essentially a social engineering attack.

Motivations

There’s a host of benefits for attackers that successfully dupe people into thinking they’ve conducted an attack. A major part of this is the underlying attack ecosystem: since the rise of Ransomware as a Service (RaaS), every attack works toward a ransomware creator’s marketing campaign.

Fear As a Motivator

Fake hacks can therefore draw more affiliates and attention to their illicit brand. Furthermore, victims publicly blasted on perpetrators’ ‘name and shame’ sites risk massive brand damage.

This only encourages victims to pay up fast – or risk the hit to reputation.

Enterprises

For enterprises that employ people with varying degrees of technical literacy, fake attacks offer a very easy way to begin genuine attack campaigns: if an employee receives a message claiming that their account has been hacked, they’re more likely to release sensitive information or offer access to unauthorized content within the victim’s system.

In reality, they may not have any access to the system at all, but by leveraging fear and uncertainty, they can coerce victims into compliance.

How to Prevent Fake Attacks: 2 Effective Steps

Since it’s a social engineering attack, fake hack prevention depends heavily on employee training and the ability for your technically-trained staff to actually detect and verify an apparent attack’s legitimacy.

#1: Employee training

A key strategy for defending against social engineering attacks is educating your organization’s employees on how cybercriminals operate. Since social engineering exploits weaknesses in human behavior, implementing a thorough security awareness training program is essential to protect both your organization and its workforce.

Social Engineering Simulations

In addition to educating employees on cybersecurity, it is crucial for your organization to take the next step by conducting social engineering simulations to test their responses. This ensures that employees not only understand security concepts but are also prepared to recognize and react appropriately to real-world threats.

Framework for End-Users

Finally, have a framework in place for end-users to report suspicious messaging to the security team.

This needs to be included within the training, as employees must know this is the path to take – regardless of the alleged attack that they’re being targeted by.

#2: System visibility

Alongside showing employees how to identify and respond to fake attacks, your security and technical teams need to have the tools to determine whether an attack is legitimate. If, for instance, an attacker is claiming to have infiltrated a database, or taken down a server in a DoS attack, it’s on the analysts’ shoulders to determine:

When
How
If it’s true

This demands an ability to understand the communications that are occurring across every port – if determining this is a long, manual process, the likelihood of a well-crafted fake hack being leveraged against your enterprise goes up significantly.

As a result, more and more teams are requiring deeper visibility than their current security tools.

Gain Visibility Into Your System Weaknesses with Check Point’s Security CheckUp

The most effective way to troubleshoot your cybersecurity is through a free security checkup from Check Point. Check Point’s industry-leading analysis team will conduct a thorough analysis of your network, gathering comprehensive data on active threats across your entire environment, including:

Réseaux
Postes
Appareils mobiles

Once the evaluation is complete, receive a detailed report outlining any malware infections, high-risk web applications, and issues that fake hacks could potentially exacerbate.

Get a report and see what areas of your network need closer attention today.