How Your Wireless Network is Getting Hacked

These days, it is not uncommon to see a network of computers connected using wireless Hi-Fi technology. It is a simple process – you give your router a unique ID and secure the network with a password, so that, your network is safe and secure against any unauthorized person from accessing your machine.

Now you have set up a “secure” network and are relaxed and not worried about hackers, are you really safe? Well, not 100%. What? I have taken all the basic steps to protect myself, but how can the hackers get to my machine? Well, this is a valid question.

Please be aware of some hacking techniques could be used to gain access to your machine’s network. One of the techniques hackers use when hacking wireless networks is sniffing. What is sniffing?

Sniffing

Sniffing is the simple process of intercepting wireless data that is being broadcast on an unsecured network.

If you are at home, and your network is likely to be secured if you have already configured your network as such. However, places like hotels, libraries, Internet cafes and coffee shops are not secure.

Most of the time, sniffers target public places and hang out close to where Hi-Fi networks exist. There is even an activity known as Wardriving that involves driving around a city picking up wireless data, basically “drive by shooting”.

You can only be fully protected if you avoid unsecured wireless networks. If this is not the option, then the next best thing to do is to be careful about what information you send on an unsecured network.

The Final Words

Although there are a few other ways to crack Hi-Fi network, like spoofing and encryption cracking, sniffing is the most widely used technique to attack networks. New exploits are found constantly, making it difficult to ever ensure that you are 100% protected.

If you are especially a public figure, you will need to be extra careful. Most attacks happen not because the hackers are sophisticated geeks, but because someone was negligence to secure their network and/or logged in at some shady Internet cafe some where.

I strongly advise you to be extra vigilant and take proper steps to secure your network by using a long and highly randomized encryption key, never accessing a wireless network system while you are away from home or office. In short, never log in to a machine connected using Hi-Fi technology if the network is not yours.

My next blog entry will be on Thursday September 02, 2010.

Mullkam Samint!