Did you know that somebody can hack your phone through your WiFi?
It is true.
Cybercriminals are becoming more creative with the ways that they steal your information so you need to learn how your phone can be hacked through your WiFi network.
This quick guide will help you understand how your phone can be hacked through your WiFi network and how you can protect yourself.
Table of Contents
Hacking Through WiFi
It is not hard to hack a cellphone through WiFi. If a hacker is able to access your WiFi, then they are able to hack into your cellphone as well.
It is also dangerous to connect to free public WiFi. These are normally unsecured networks that are easy to hack. If the free public WiFi network has already been hacked, then that means that every device that connects to that network is a potential target for hacking. This includes your phone or computer.
This is why cybersecurity is so important. You need to make sure that you only use secured networks and that you protect your devices at all costs.
There are a few different ways that your phone can be hacked through WiFi.
Man in the Middle Attack
You likely are not connecting directly to the internet. You are probably using a router to connect to the internet. The router directs internet traffic so that your phone can send and receive data.
When you use the correct password to connect to your router, the router sends its MAC address to your computer, which also has a unique MAC address. Although every MAC address is theoretically unique, anybody who hacks into your network can change their MAC address to match that of your router.
When this happens, all of the devices on your network are not connecting to the router, they are connecting to the hacker’s device. The hacker is sending and receiving all of their data, making them the “man in the middle.”
The hacker is able to log every URL that you visit and they are also able to access every username and password that you use, at least when you are accessing unencrypted websites. You can tell if a website is encrypted based on whether it is using HTTP or HTTPS protocol.
The “S” in HTTPS stands for “secure”. You should always check to make sure that the website you are visiting is using HTTPS protocol. In addition to the “S” there will also be a symbol of a padlock next to it.
How to Hack a Router
In order to know how to protect your phone from cybercriminals hacking into your WiFi network, you need to know how a WiFi network can be hacked in the first place.
There are three primary ways that a cybercriminal can do this:
If your router is not password protected, it is easy for a cybercriminal to hack it.
If you give the password away, a cybercriminal can hack it. This can be a visitor to your home who you share the password with, it can also be someone who physically looks at the default password that is written on the router itself. This is why it is important to change the default password.
If your router uses an outdated authentication protocol, it is easy for cybercriminals to hack it. This is why it is important to keep your devices updated and to disable WEP protocol.
It is important that you avoid sharing your password with others, and that you change the default password on your router to something that is not easy to guess. It goes without saying that not having a password to protect your router is a bad idea.
The last point is the most critical one. If you are still using an old router, your router might still be using WEP protocol. If this is the case, it takes almost no effort to hack into your network. Instead of WEP you should be using WPA2-PSK with AES encryption.
How Can You Tell If You Have Been Hacked?
One way that you can tell if your network has been hacked is if there is an unknown device that is connected to the network. In order to complete a Man in the Middle Attack, the cybercriminal must be connected to your network. If they are connected to your network, you will be able to see them.
With some routers you can see all of the connected devices through the router settings and kick out any devices that you do not recognize. You can also do this with a network scanner app.
Final Thoughts
There is almost nothing that is more important than keeping your phone secure. There is lots of sensitive personal information on your phone that you do not want cyber criminals to be able to access. This is why it is important to know how to prevent cybercriminals from being able to hack your phone through your WiFi network.
Source:
Comments