Here’s how Hackers hack into thousands of social media accounts every day

Hackers all around the globe are constantly illegally breaking into social media accounts every single day. In movies the hacker is portrayed as a character under a lot of pressure, guessing passwords seemingly at random and then miraculously getting it right the third or fourth time. They are usually targeting someone specific, a prominent figure or the protagonist of the film.

However that couldn’t be further from how hackers actually hack into accounts.

How do hackers hack into accounts?

The most common way for a hacker to hack into an account is by using special tools and software that help automate the process of breaking into the account and finding the right credentials that will work.

Hackers can use a technique called Password Spraying where they use a collection of commonly used passwords such as “12345” or “password123”. A hacker could deploy hundreds of bots to automate this process, once a bot finds a match with the account the hacker will be given the correct password and then try taking over the account. This hacking technique only works if the hacker already knows the username or email address.

Another way (and the most common way) that hackers hack into accounts is by performing something called Credential Stuffing. Hackers firstly target a website that has any form of an account system that is hosted on the same server as the website. The hacker will break into the database that contains all of the user credentials, or they will buy a list of credentials from an online black market. These online black markets are usually on the dark web to evade law enforcement. Next, the hacker will use bots to flood a login page on a different website with these credentials that are stolen from the original website. After hundreds of tries, eventually a bot will log into an account, this process will repeat until all the credentials are checked. A program will then compile all of the successful break-in attempts and return them to the hacker.

How do I prevent Password Spraying and Credential Stuffing?

The best way to prevent hackers from hacking into your account is by using different passwords, or utilizing a password manager.

A Password Manager allows you to safely login to all of your accounts without the worry of a hacker breaking in to it. Password Managers create unique passwords for each service which prevents attacks such as Credential Stuffing and Password Spraying.

Secondly you could add multi factor authentication if the service supports it. Discord use Google Authentication as another layer of protection to your account. You will need to check with your website if it has multi factor authentication support.

With this in mind, a hacker will be much less likely to hack into your accounts. Hackers usually give up if you’re not an easy target, so these steps will protect you from these hackers.