Believe it or not, the methods carried out by cybercriminals to steal data are many. They can even listen to us through our phone if they had previously hacked a WiFi connection to which we have connected. As simple as that. The good side of this is that not all networks have this problem.
It is clear that using a wireless network to avoid spending mobile data is something that everyone does. Especially when the mobile connection goes bad because we have little coverage or we do not have unlimited data. Or, also, when we have gone on a trip to an area where we cannot use our mobile rate. In any case, the danger that someone can carry out WiFi Eavesdropping is a reality.
How do they get it?
The WiFi networks of each house are more protected. The main problem is in the wireless connections that we find in public places, which are open to everyone. And is that, how many times have you connected to a public WiFi to save mobile data? Well, from now on you may think twice before doing it.
Cybercriminals manage to sneak into WiFi networks in order to obtain private data from users, such as bank information or similar. And, in this case, the hacker manages to passively listen to the communications of those public networks that are not encrypted. Whether in a coffee shop, an airport or a shopping center, we can fall into the trap of cybercriminals.
One of the techniques used by attackers is to create a Wi-Fi with the name of a store, a company or a place that is legitimate, such as an airport. Therefore, you will have to be very careful when connecting to open networks.
The dangers of these attacks
For example, it could create a network with the same name and make the victim believe that they are on a legitimate connection. Therefore, when trying to establish the connection, the cybercriminal known as “eavesdropper” manages to retain user data.
In addition, hackers can take advantage of and collect everything that we are sending or receiving through the network. In other words, they could perfectly read our messages, steal passwords… Or even have the ability to use this false network to divert navigation and make users enter controlled sites for them and get them to make some type of payment and steal their Bank data.
To avoid this problem in the future, the ideal is that we know the most common places where this type of attack can occur: libraries, parks, universities, stations, airports, shopping centers or even work spaces.
And in order not to fall into their network, the ideal is to thoroughly analyze the network to which we are going to connect. For example, we will have to see if the name and password that they provide us is the real one and it is not a network that anyone has created. Another detail will be that this network uses encryption such as WPA-2 or WPA-3. Although, the ideal is to avoid open WiFi connections at all times. But, if you have no choice, it is recommended to use VPN on the device that we are going to connect.
