Exploiting a vulnerability

Since organizations are quickly adding layers of security to their IT infrastructures and developers have been building software resistant to known threats such as SQL injection, it has become somewhat difficult to attack systems using traditional hacking techniques. This is why hackers are switching to exploiting vulnerabilities in systems to easily breach otherwise secure systems. Vulnerabilities fetch high prices on the black market and this is where many hackers buy what they need.

Hackers have been known to take the time to study the systems used by targets in order to identify any vulnerabilities. For instance, WikiLeaks has often said that the NSA does the same thing, and currently a database of vulnerabilities exists on computing devices, commonly used software systems, and even everyday devices. At times, hackers breach into such agencies, steal these vulnerabilities, and use them to attack systems. The hacking group The Shadow Brokers regularly...