It is very important that we have a secure network; otherwise a hacker could crack the security of your wireless network easily. A hacker can easily misuse your wireless network by doing illegal things. A hacker uses various methods to crack the security of your wireless network. A few of them are listed below.

What are Wireless Networks?

Wireless networks are computer Wi-Fi networks. It is not connected by cables. It uses radio signal frequency to communicate with computers. The common types of wireless networks are LAN (Local Area Network), PAN (Personal Area Network), MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network). Wireless LAN connections are used within a building or a campus and provide high performance and fast Internet speeds.

Different Ways a Hacker Could Crack the Security of Your Wireless Network

1. Cracking an unencrypted network: An open network is the least secure network. Anybody can connect to this network and use the Internet connection. When it is an unencrypted network, anybody can use a packet capturing program to capture all the wireless packets. By inspecting these packets, a hacker can easily know the activities that you are doing online. It is advised that you should not operate in an open Wi-Fi network, especially while handling confidential data. Through an unencrypted network, a hacker can crack the security of your wireless network easily and can misuse your confidential data.
2. Finding a hidden wireless network: A hidden wireless network can easily be found using network monitoring tools like Kismet. These tools will display the wireless networks that are available nearby. Information such as the SSID (Service Set Identifier), name and so forth will be displayed as blanks in these tools. An attacker sends what is called a deauth authentication frame to the device. The devices then try to connect to the network using the SSID. Even without the help of the tool, it is easy to capture the SSID. Actually hiding your wireless network increases the risk of an attack.
3. Changing a MAC (Media Access Control) Address: There are many network analysis tools that help to capture network traffic. They will provide information about all devices that are connected to an access point along with their MAC address. When a device is connected to an access point, attackers can easily know the MAC ID. Attackers change their Wi-Fi MAC address to match with computer’s MAC address. Attackers then force the client to disconnect and then they reconnect to the Wi-Fi network using their own device.
4. Cracking wired equivalent privacy (WEP): WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a secure way to encrypt your Wi-Fi. WPA1 can be easily cracked. An attacker can use some software programs to easily crack the WPA1.
5. Exploiting the WPS vulnerability: An attacker can easily crack the security of your wireless network by exploiting the WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) vulnerabilities.

There are some ways to protect your wireless network from attackers who are trying to crack the security of your wireless network. Using a strong password for your accounts should be emphasized. Enabling network encryption can increase your security level. You should make sure that a firewall for the route is enabled. It is an easy way to block unwanted incoming calls. You should make sure that the route software is up to date. Outdated software always increases the chances of getting infected by viruses. Once you are done with using your wireless network, you should always remember to keep it off.

Conclusion

You should always try to protect your wireless network and avoid misuse of it. There are a number of attackers out there who are trying to crack the security of your wireless network and use your network to do their dirty work.