Wifi network sniffing is by far the easiest way to steal data from unsuspecting wifi users. All a hacker needs to do is configure a wifi receiver to grab data packets from the air as they are being transmitted between devices.
Whenever you visit a website and enter a password or download a file from the Internet over wifi, all the raw data you send and receive is transmitted in packets of ones and zeros. This being the case, stealing data is easy. Sniffing can be a slow process. However, when hackers reassemble data, they essentially have copies of any files you were sending or receiving online. They can also see what websites you were visiting, as well as details of any text you were entering into websites.
The easiest way to prevent a hacker from sniffing your data is to use a VPN. When you use a VPN all data that you transmit over the Internet is end-to-end encrypted. As a result, hackers can still snatch data packets from the air. However, encrypting data means that these data packets can never be put back together by hackers. Sniffing data packets is a lengthy but effective way of stealing data that you transmit over wifi.
However, a much easier way to get this data is for you to give it to hackers directly. To fool you into sending data to them, hackers often clone the SSID of legitimate routers. This works best in areas where free public wifi is available. All a hacker has to do is clone a hotspot, make the signal of their hotspot stronger than the original, and people will connect to it. As it stands, connecting to a spoofed hotspot can see a hacker steal everything from your email address passwords to your online banking credentials.
Like with sniffing, the easiest way to prevent hackers who spoof hotspots from stealing your data is to use a VPN. This is because any data they can steal will be impossible to decrypt, making it worthless.
Sniffing and spoofing are essentially just ways to intercept data being transmitted via wifi. These attack strategies are, therefore, usually put into practice in public spaces. When you are at home using your own wifi network, stealing data becomes more difficult. However, it is not impossible. Do your devices constantly need to reconnect to your router? If so, someone may be causing that to happen on purpose.
However, just like sniffing and spoofing, you can protect yourself by using a VPN. Article Contributed By :. Easy Normal Medium Hard Expert. Writing code in comment? Please use ide. Load Comments. What's New. Most popular in Computer Networks. Most visited in GBlog.
You will need a wireless network enabled device such as a laptop, tablet, smartphones, etc. You will also need to be within the transmission radius of a wireless network access point. Most devices if the wireless network option is turned on will provide you with a list of available networks.
If the network is not password protected, then you just have to click on connect. If it is password protected, then you will need the password to gain access. Since the network is easily accessible to everyone with a wireless network enabled device, most networks are password protected. It was developed for IEEE Its goal was to provide the privacy equivalent to that provided by wired networks. WEP works by encrypting the data been transmitted over the network to keep it safe from eavesdropping.
Open System Authentication OSA — this methods grants access to station authentication requested based on the configured access policy. The station encrypts the challenge with its key then responds. If the encrypted challenge matches the AP value, then access is granted. It is used to encrypt data on It uses temporal keys to encrypt packets. Cracking is the process of exploiting security weaknesses in wireless networks and gaining unauthorized access. There are basically two types of cracks namely;.
WPA uses a pre-shared key or passphrase for authentications.
0コメント