Hacking Wireless Internet Connections

This article is to show how to prevent your wireless connection from getting hacked. It also explains the hacker’s point of view used for hacking.

This is done in just three easy steps.

What is Wireless Internet??

• The term “wireless internet” means internet access without the use of wires. It actually uses radio frequency bands to exchange information between your computer and the Internet.
• Wireless internet access allows users to connect to the internet from any location within range of a wireless access point. Outside the range, it won’t work.

U need some wireless internet equipment  wireless access.
For home use, the equipment are:

• Wireless NIC card
• Wireless router or access point
• Internet access

Hacking Wireless Internet Connections

• Wireless networks are very common in everyday life. It is very easy to find wireless networks that are unsecured. Either the users are lazy or maybe they are not understanding when it comes wireless networks. Whatever the reason, hackers find wireless networks easy to break into, and use this wireless technology to crack into non-wireless networks.

• The main source of vulnerability associated with hacking of wireless networks are the methods of encryption. There are a few different types of encrytion:

Methods of Wireless Encryption are as follows
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

• It is breakable even when correctly configured
• Can be broken in as little as 3 minutes

WPA or WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
It was created to provide stronger security.

• If a long password is used, these protocol are difficult to crack.
• Even with good passwords, wireless networks can be hacked because no security is 100%

Methods of Hacking 

First Method

• Locate the wireless signal using your default Windows tool “View Available Wireless Network”
• You can use tools like Kismet. Kismet has an good and I use it because it can pick up wireless signals that are not broadcasting their SSID.

Second Method

• After finding a wireless network you can connect to it if it is not using authentication or encryption.
• If it is using authentication or encryption then the next  use a tool for sniffing out and cracking WEP keys. I use AirSnort. If using AirSnort,

• AirSnort must gather about 5 to 10 million packets before it starting to crack a wireless key.
• This could take some time depending on how many packets are being generated. More number of people on the network is more good for the hacker.

Third Method

• After AirSnort has recovered enough packets it will start reading the captured information gathered from the packets and crack the key giving you access.

Wi-Foo: The Secrets of Wireless Hacking
Prevent Your Network from Getting Hacked

There is no way of 100% security but the following steps can be followed.

• Hide your SSID. This is usually done during the setup of your wireless router.
• Changing the default router login to some other thing.
• Always use WPA or WPA 2 because it is harder to decrypt.
• Always check for updates for your router.
• Turn off your router or access point when you are not using it.