In today’s world, we are facing a lot of security threats with digital storage like hard drives, disks, USBs, and others. Anyone can hack our data, or any covert agency can obtain our information to blackmail us, harm us through leaked data, or expose our projects that are still in different developmental stages. When a data breach occurs, it threatens individuals and organizations that have entered any personal information, passwords, or other details into these programs, in case the stolen data from that company is shared publicly.
Data breaches can sometimes be accidental or infiltrated intentionally by those whose intentions are malicious. To mitigate current and future risks, a combination of both technological and procedural defenses should be employed. We concentrate on the technological aspect related to different types of solid-state drives and M.2 and propose a series of countermeasures to improve the resilience of digital storage.
The main contributions are summarized in the following key points:
- We show where a file is hacked within the digital storage and in which vulnerability.
- We clarify how to find a file hacked within the digital storage and conclude how badly the hacked file can be.
- We provide a list of the vulnerabilities of the main digital storage technologies by which a file can be hacked. It is revealed in which sector the input/output of the storage area the file can be hacked.
- Based on these points, we also propose security measures respecting confidentiality only or having other aims such as availability, integrity, or verifying the lack of such measures. Several keywords are used.
Before defining these keywords, we need to introduce others. The entire digital area of the storage is divided into disk storage and storage area network. The amount of different data storage has different sectors; digital storage is compromised within any of these sectors. It will prevent any type of guarantees. Therefore, understanding where the file is in such digital storage is very important in the nullification. It is the subject of interest. The result of this investigation is the following.
Understanding Digital Storage Systems

There are many types of digital storage systems with different characteristics, but there are three major categories of storage: primary storage, secondary storage, and tertiary storage, also known as low-capacity, high-capacity, and long-term storage. Primary storage systems include memory chips, which are temporarily used to store data for rapid processing. Secondary storage systems contain working copies of programs and data with which a computer works. Tertiary storage has ample space to store backups and archives with additional data.
In cases of catastrophic outages or data loss, data can be recovered from either primary or secondary storage. These systems work based on various component designs, including regular disks, hybrid disks using both mechanical plates and electronic memory, solid-state drives, or completely electronic cloud-based storage devices. Cloud storage is the most recent storage system available to people today.
This storage provides easy backup and access, sharing, and syncing capabilities to consumers by remotely storing data on multiple virtual servers. This storage is neat, free of maintenance, and does not need any hardware resources. Despite having several benefits, cloud-based storage also has some risks such as security threats or network security breaches.
Many security controls have been designed to secure the primary, secondary, or tertiary storage systems. Security controls such as environmental controls, administrative access controls, physical controls, logical controls, operational controls, technical controls, access control, boot mechanisms, account and object controls, data protection controls, application development controls, and communication security and network security controls are being implemented to secure operating, network storage, and storage applications.
Normally, preventing data storage security attacks involves several steps such as physical storage handling, security, and security mechanism deployment in the storage on the part of the user. Security development practices also focus on securing storage area network devices, cloud storage mechanisms, and data integrity, availability, encryption, access controls, and firewalls.
Types of Digital Storage
Perhaps a better understanding of what digital storage is will provide insights on the role of location when determining the seriousness of possible file exposure. Digital storage can be generally categorized as hardware-based storage known as hard disk drives or solid-state drives and removable media. Characteristics of an HDD include a lower cost per byte for storage but often slower data access speeds than an SSD. SSDs are more expensive but are also faster, more efficient, and have longer lifespans than HDDs. In general, the main advantages of removable media are lower cost because data can be erased and devices reused, and the ability to take data with you if needed.
A usual concern with removable media is that they are easy for thieves to take away. These older styles of digital storage are susceptible to being lost or misappropriated. Consequently, a person’s data may be compromised. Cloud storage is also becoming more prevalent. The advantages of this type of storage relate to not having to lug around and having shared documents available to a team and others. The main thing to note regarding cloud storage is that each brand has different security protocols and little transparency.
Different digital storage types, then, pose different levels of file exposure. Speed is a feature that, in general, distinguishes different types of storage from one another. The faster the data flow within a storage medium, the more quickly that medium can communicate with the manipulating device. In this, faster media offer less time for a hacker to steal sequential files, rendering them to be of a lower security risk. Lower speed storage typically presents files in a random order on the device, increasing the time that must be spent in order to successfully extract files.
This would render files to have greater security. We expect to see people who store a good portion of their files on faster storage to be hacking victims. There are also implications for how someone could recover files after a data breach. The data on harder and faster storage is harder to recover than that on slower and easier storage. Any recovered data will depend in part on the designated responsibilities and security networking practices for secondary responses.
Hacked data on faster media is exposed to the largest number of potential victims. Hence, data on faster media could render a researcher’s standalone computer to have greater potential exposure. Both types of storage could be harder to collect data from, given the appropriate security measures are taken.
Common Security Measures
Encryption is an important tool to protect sensitive information stored on a system. It helps in protecting the data from unauthorized access by any users or hackers. Due to the new threats developed digitally, only encrypting the sensitive information is not enough. Firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems are needed to keep and protect the system as well as meet security requirements.
Organizations generally use a set of strategies for building firewall protection and intrusion detection systems for the network. These strategies require careful planning to meet organizational security and operational requirements. In general, access control is an important aspect of security for e-systems. Proper access control provides an information system that is resilient against digital threats.
The two main types of access control techniques are based on data and systems. There are different security measures based on the type of storage. Different measures are needed for the security of a cloud, which includes different requirements than local storage, such as user authentication, access control systems, backup systems, firewalls, and VPNs. Organizations can implement two different methods for protecting their network.
For instance, many organizations are using the private cloud while others are using the public cloud. It is a challenge for the organization to protect the storage cloud as the data of the company would be hosted on third-party servers. Encryption and virtual private networks are the two commonly practiced technologies employed by different organizations. VPNs can help protect against threats present in public networks. A software firewall could be used on a cloud server but needs to be implemented carefully.
Hacking Techniques and Vulnerabilities
Cybercriminals use several techniques to turn vulnerabilities into security incidents. Phishing, for instance, is a popular technique that is used to spoof users into giving up their credentials. Malware can capture user activity by logging keystrokes, thus capturing credentials even if an attacker sends the captured credentials to himself. Brute force attacks can be used to take over accounts with weak passwords, or application weaknesses that can be exploited. Successful intrusions really occur in areas where vulnerabilities and threats overlap.
Apart from these examples, there is a range of other factors to consider. There are also flaws in software, such as misconfigurations, the use of default credentials, network architecture, or social engineering, as well as simple human error. Additionally, a mixture of any of these may be exploited in advance, making the number of potential vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors almost endless.
The consequences of illicit access may be several: there may be reputational damage arising from the disclosure of such data to unauthorized persons, regulatory fines, or other financial sanctions. The restoration of secure systems can require additional work, and users or customers can take the business, and everything that goes with it, elsewhere.
Hacking techniques, and therefore security threats, are constantly evolving and changing. Every time one technique becomes understood and predictable, or a number of successful attacks occur, hackers look for another weakness to exploit. The knowledge of these techniques is also important, as these are the facts that defenses must adapt.
Methods for Detecting Hacked Files
How to find if our digital storage is hacked? Detection of hacked files is pertinent to cybersecurity. Antivirus and anti-malware software applications are used extensively to detect malicious files stored in digital storage systems. Different methods identify hacked files based on various states of files, network anomalies, and user activities.
File integrity monitoring is a proactive approach to detecting unauthorized modifications to files. In digital forensics, we may use a tool called malware forensic analysis to determine whether files in the storage are indeed compromised or not. There are many techniques used in file integrity monitoring, which can be used to detect hacked files on time, like digital forensics and cyber threat intelligence. The scans and audits should be performed from time to time. These file storage monitoring tools work well in the enterprise network environment, but personal storage devices may be at risk.
In the past few years, user behavior analytics have been widely used to find the intruder in an organization. But these can also be used to find if the file is affected or not by the intruder’s behavior. When using computers, authorized users develop a set of unique behaviors such as keystroke patterns, routine physical behavior, regular retrieval of documents, and data entry. They also tend to become familiar with the layout of individual operating systems and the tools they need to carry out their roles.
People also incorporate human behavior into systems so that they can work quickly and easily. Unauthorized modifications to storage files can cause a variety of operational problems that may only be identified from the properties they cause. However, it is also recommended to jam the network with a huge amount of junk files so that judicious scanning cannot detect the hacked files. A combination of a robust monitoring device and a framework can detect data breaches rapidly and effectively.
Enhancing Security Measures
The contemporary threat environment is ever adaptive and evolving. Seeking to optimize the security measures placed towards securing digital storage to keep in line with changes within the threat environment is essential for ensuring comprehensive data protection. Keeping a threat-focused approach to improvement strategies can offer an array of diverse advantages. Using a multi-layer security approach towards digital storage is highly recommended.
Single-function security systems often have multiple security features against anomalies within the risk of personal system weaknesses. One of the most effective means of improving digital storage security standards begins with ensuring that the elements of physical security are adequately implemented. Using more advanced encryption techniques and increasing the level of standard that defines secure encryption will ensure that the files are unreadable once hacked.
End-to-end encryption is an example of a good practice towards securing the exchanged files. Ensuring worker competence and awareness of risk is an effective means of mitigating risk through comprehensive training programs within an organization. Regulatory authorities often require that internal and external scans for regulating network ports be carried out alongside in-depth risk assessments and penetration testing.
Using security tools containing AI can be effective for assessing a range of different files that may be accessed on a network, ensuring that all necessary protective devices are provided. Solutions such as artificial intelligence-driven security can monitor and identify the potential threats of hacking, then decide whether to defend or to inform the system administrator. All corporations hold legal responsibility to utilize IT systems that conform to relevant laws and standards. Compliance with these higher standards can also offer high levels of assurance, trust, confidence, and protection against various kinds of hacking.