What is a backdoor?
Imagine you're a burglar casing a house for a potential robbery. You see a "Protected by…" security sign staked in the front lawn and Ring doorbell camera. Being the crafty cat burglar that you are, you hop the fence leading to the back of the house. You see there's a backdoor, cross your fingers, and try the knob—it's unlocked. To the casual observer, there are no external signs of a burglary. In fact, there's no reason you couldn't rob this house through the same backdoor again, assuming you don't ransack the place.
Computer Backdoor work in much the same way.
In the world of cybersecurity, a backdoor refers to any method by which authorized and unauthorized users are able to get around normal security measures and gain high level user access (aka root acess) on a computer system, network, or software application. Once they're in, cybercriminals can use a backdoor to steal personal and financial data, install additional malware, and hijack devices.
But backdoors aren't just for bad guys. Backdoors can also be installed by software or hardware makers as a deliberate means of gaining access to their technology after the fact. Backdoors of the non-criminal variety are useful for helping customers who are hopelessly locked out of their devices or for troubleshooting and resolving software issues.
Unlike other cyberthreats that make themselves known to the user (looking at you ransomware), backdoors are known for being discreet. Backdoors exist for a select group of people in the know to gain easy access to a system or application.
As a threat, backdoors aren't going away anytime soon. According to the Malwarebytes Labs backdoors were the fourth most common threat detection in 2018 for both consumers and businesses—respective increases of 34 and 173 percent over the previous year.
If you're concerned about backdoors, you heard about backdoors in the news and want to know what the deal is, or you have a backdoor on your computer and need to get rid of it right now, you're in the right place. Read on and get ready to learn everything you've ever wanted to know about backdoors.
Imagine you're a burglar casing a house for a potential robbery. You see a "Protected by…" security sign staked in the front lawn and Ring doorbell camera. Being the crafty cat burglar that you are, you hop the fence leading to the back of the house. You see there's a backdoor, cross your fingers, and try the knob—it's unlocked. To the casual observer, there are no external signs of a burglary. In fact, there's no reason you couldn't rob this house through the same backdoor again, assuming you don't ransack the place.
Computer Backdoor work in much the same way.
In the world of cybersecurity, a backdoor refers to any method by which authorized and unauthorized users are able to get around normal security measures and gain high level user access (aka root acess) on a computer system, network, or software application. Once they're in, cybercriminals can use a backdoor to steal personal and financial data, install additional malware, and hijack devices.
But backdoors aren't just for bad guys. Backdoors can also be installed by software or hardware makers as a deliberate means of gaining access to their technology after the fact. Backdoors of the non-criminal variety are useful for helping customers who are hopelessly locked out of their devices or for troubleshooting and resolving software issues.
Unlike other cyberthreats that make themselves known to the user (looking at you ransomware), backdoors are known for being discreet. Backdoors exist for a select group of people in the know to gain easy access to a system or application.
As a threat, backdoors aren't going away anytime soon. According to the Malwarebytes Labs backdoors were the fourth most common threat detection in 2018 for both consumers and businesses—respective increases of 34 and 173 percent over the previous year.
If you're concerned about backdoors, you heard about backdoors in the news and want to know what the deal is, or you have a backdoor on your computer and need to get rid of it right now, you're in the right place. Read on and get ready to learn everything you've ever wanted to know about backdoors.