Installing WiFi at your homes to effectively enjoy a wireless network service, is a step taken by every 1 out of 5 families today. But how many of them actually know the risk factors involved in it? An unprotected WiFi can cost you a huge amount of personal data and is capable of creating a silent havoc. We discuss here most common methods hackers use to hack wifi.
So, here are a few methods hackers use to hack WiFi:
- MAC Spoofing: Rogue devices have the ability to spoof MAC address of an authorized WiFi network device and use them as their own. This can cost the owner serious loss of personal information as well as wireless data. This is one of the most basic methods used to hack wifi.
Mac Spoofing
- Piggybacking: Piggybacking on Internet access is the practice of establishing an internet connection by using another subscriber’s wireless Internet access service without the
subscriber’s permission or knowledge. This is to some extent a crime, but many experts as well as novice ones perform this which often harms the original subscriber with a great deal of data loss.
Example showing Piggybacking
- Misuse of Wardriving: Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer, smartphone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Well, this isn’t a crime and security experts themselves perform it to locate loopholes but if misused, the process of wardriving can extract subsequent amount of data from an unprotected WiFi hotspot. Post wardriving the information found about hacked wifi’s is often displayed pictorially or on a map.
Wardriving in Action
- Breaking Encryption Codes: There are many different types of encryption enabled in a WiFi router, that include : WEP (easiest to crack/hack), WPA and WPA2. Softwares like Wireless Password Hacker are easy available that can break through such encryptions. Without necessary precautions, a simple WiFi encryption can never protect the user data or info.
- Crack WEP with BackTrack: In order to crack an WEP encryption using BackTrack, all you need is: A compatible wireless adapter, BackTrack Live CD, nearby WEP-enabled Wi-Fi network and the best part is, you don’t need to be an expert for doing this. Yes it’s that easy.
- Crack Passwords with Reaver: A free, open-source tool called Reaver id avaliable that exploits a security hole in wireless routers and can crack most routers’ passwords with relative ease. A simple authorisation or a mere encryption won’t really protect you well.
- WarKitteh Collar: The “WarKitteh” collar, a device Gene Bransfield built for less than $100 is the one that turns any outdoor cat into a Wifi-sniffing hacker accomplice. A Siamese Cat Coco wore the collar and wandered about in Washington DC neighbourhood, hacking dozens of unprotected wifi networks.
WiFi security is a much talked field these days. We have come up with an interactive video showing consequences of weak WiFi and how one can prevent from getting hacked. Have a look at the video here.
