How Hackers Attack SMBs And How To Protect Yourself

Paul Mah attended an ethical hacker university and applies what he learned to helping SMBs protect themselves against black hat (criminal) hackers who target them.

"I was offered a free scholarship to attend the latest version of EC-Council's Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) course last week, which was touted as the most advanced ethical hacking program in the world. The pilot run of CEHv7 in Singapore was conducted at New Horizons over the course of a week, and was of particular interest to me given my previous stint in the IT industry. One of the topics explored the initial reconnaissance tactics employed by hackers, which had me thinking of possible steps for SMBs to take to better protect themselves.

To help SMBs better understand the situation, I've outlined two initial 'footprinting' activities below that black hat hackers use against their targets. I've also included some suggestions that SMBs can adopt to deter or at least stymie these information-gathering vectors."