2023-05-30 13:40:57
Young hackers called script kiddies are able to wreak havoc by using off-the-shelf scripts to attack computer networks. We dive into their world to measure the extent of the phenomenon.
Script Kiddies – or Skiddies – is the term used by Internet security professionals to describe young hackers who use off-the-shelf programs to attack computer networks.
Although they lack the skills of their more experienced counterparts, the ease with which they can launch attacks makes them a true cyber threat.
Takeover of WhatsApp accounts
“These kids who today are hackers really do, quite literally, have the ability to make or break our world,” noted Alexander J. Urbel, cybersecurity lawyer at Crowell & Moring LLP. “We have to be absolutely sure,” he continues, “to nurture and nurture them intellectually, in the right way.”
A young Skiddie tells us anonymously how it all started for him. “I started hacking, not in the usual way of first experimenting with cheats,” he points out.
“I was around 12 and one day a friend I was chatting with online said to me, ‘I found a very interesting little program and I want to try it out.’ He put my phone number in that account and he was able to take full control of my WhatsApp, he was able to message all my friends and say all these stupid things,” says the young man before specifying: “It is a technique that allows you to take complete control of an account that is not yours.
“I asked him, ‘How did you manage to do that?’ He replied that he couldn’t tell me and that it was related to his software,” he explains. “It was from that day that I became interested in hacking,” he said.
Lack of empathy
According Kelly Dunlapa clinical psychologist and game designer, the allure of hacking often lies in the simple desire to have fun.
“When children engage in acts of piracy, there’s a little lack of empathy,” points out the specialist. “They want to be different, individualize, entertain people, including themselves and their friends, by doing something naughty or unexpected,” she describes.
Ghost Exodus is a former “Black Hat hacker” turned humanitarian activist. He shows us a ready-made program dedicated to hacking which is readily available. “This tool is completely standalone, it’s basically a network/penetration testing framework,” he specifies.
“You can think of it as a Swiss army knife, it can force all connected services, it doesn’t require much user intervention,” points out the repentant pirate.
“So even if you don’t know how to do these things on your own, you can use a standalone script to do these things for you and the end result will be what you expect,” he assures.
Easy money
Script Kiddies are driven by multiplying opportunities, believes Christian Funka member of Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) in Germany. “Script kiddies have been on the rise for the past 5 or 6 years, due to the increased sophistication of cybercrime, the rise in ransomware,” says the expert. “It’s an easy way for people to make money,” he points out.
Moreover, the growing interconnection of our systems increases our vulnerability, according to the American Mike Jonescybersecurity researcher and ex-member of the group Anonymous. “Today, hacks are happening on a larger ground because we have more connected technology: refrigerators, aquariums or even heating systems,” he lists.
“Before the internet, heating and air conditioning systems were not connected: today, we can close an entire hospital, as we have seen on the East Coast [des États-Unis] with ransomware,” he explains before concluding:So the attacks and their fatality keep getting worse.”
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