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OK.
Got it.
So how do hackers get in? They see my IP address, and then what do they do? How do they gain access to a computer that is not theirs?
What happygeek mentioned is a great example. In that sense, if you have weak passwords on your wifi (which anyone close to your residence can connect to), that would be an attack vector. And the comic posted pretty much says it all. Your security posture is measured by your weakest link. And 99.9999% of the time, that is the human behind the keyboard.
An IP address is simply an identifier that is required to communicate on a network. This way other people can respond back to your request. Or, if you are advertising a service, that address is needed to send requests to It's essentially a phone number. To an extent, it's not the IP that makes you vulnerable, its the fact that you are connected to a public network that exposes you.
While not knowing your IP will make it for someone to specifically target you. It's not exactly the be all end all from a security perspective. I don't need an IP to send you a message with a malicious link or malware. I don't need your IP to get you to visit my malicious website that will install a command & control malware that will give me access to your machine. And if you have public facing services, you HAVE to advertise your services. Which exposes you to anyone looking for a target.
Thus, patches/updates, good security hygiene, and the right controls to protect any public facing services.
Happy Geek has a great post but not the best written as that is going to read like Greek to OP, I am guessing.
The days of someone sitting in your parking lot trying to hack your network are the old days. People don't really do that these days UNLESS you like **** off the neighborhood kid. lol
As has also been said, attacks today come from webpages and emails.
Happy Geek has a great post but not the best written as that is going to read like Greek to OP, I am guessing.
The days of someone sitting in your parking lot trying to hack your network are the old days. People don't really do that these days UNLESS you like **** off the neighborhood kid. lol
As has also been said, attacks today come from webpages and emails.
Yup.
Maybe I ought to explain. I'm an old guy who went to electronics school courtesy, USN, back in 1963. After that I spent my career more or less connected to basic technology as it applied to telephony and telephony testing, but didn't learn to use a computer until 1992.
So. I am qualified to discuss radio and radar wave propagation and I am qualified enough to build the computer I am using, but I do get lost when true 21st century geeks start to talk.
I can't imagine why anyone would target me, specifically, and I don't use my iPhone for banking. My computer is hard connected to the router. Last week someone got ahold of my wife's Debit Card info and tried to buy a bunch of stuff, but the bank slammed the door on them. I'm positive that that activity had nothing to do with our home computer activities, but it got me to wondering just how it all works...
OK.
Got it.
So how do hackers get in? They see my IP address, and then what do they do? How do they gain access to a computer that is not theirs?
To back up a bit and try to clarify something that I think you're missing. The address you see on your computer is not the address a hacker on the Internet would see. They would see your external public IP address, which is assigned by your ISP. You can see your internal address by going to a command prompt and typing ipconfig. To see your external IP address, go to a website like www.whatismyip.com
When you access a web site on the Internet, your router translates your internal IP address to your external public IP address and sends the traffic on its way. When the traffic returns, your router says, oh yeah I remember you and then translates it back to your internal IP address. So your home router/firewall is a critical line of defense so make sure to keep it updated and that it's not using the default username/password.
As to your other question of how do they gain access? you already received some good answers, but here's another angle. Maybe you decided it would be convenient for you to be able to remote control your home system from another location so you follow some article and open port 3389 on your firewall. Since hackers use port scanners to see what's listening on public IP addresses, now half of China has also learned that port 3389 is open on your public IP address and is now working on cracking your username/password to gain access.
Years ago when PCAnywhere was the defacto remote control tool, I used to scan for open systems for fun. Didn't take me long to find a Windows NT server that was not only listening, but had no username or password configured! so I literally had complete control of their server. Luckily, I had no malicious intent, but felt I had to help this poor soul out so I opened up notepad and left him a nice "anonymous" note. The system got locked down a day later, lol.
OK.
Got it.
So how do hackers get in? They see my IP address, and then what do they do? How do they gain access to a computer that is not theirs?
Most of this is just random bots, they go through a range of IP's and try a laundry list of exploits. It's not some guy on a keyboard in a dark room trying to hack into your computer.
Suppose you are running a machine with WindowsXP with unpatched exploit. They might try it on a million machines before they find yours. As long as you are using supported version of Windows and keep it updated this should be non issue.
The more common ways your machine gets compromised have already been mentioned.
If you are not utilizing the wifi you can turn it off completely.
Quote:
Last week someone got ahold of my wife's Debit Card info and tried to buy a bunch of stuff, but the bank slammed the door on them. I'm positive that that activity had nothing to do with our home computer activities, but it got me to wondering just how it all works...
I got hit myself, transactions I make over the internet are rare and almost always with major companies including 2 that specialize in internet security. The charge was only for $10 but this apparently is precursor to them running up many charges. I guess another possibility is they are just trying to fly under the radar with small charges someone might not notice.
I'm fairly confident it was skimmer. I try and always have cash, especially at these small convenient stores.
When you access a web site on the Internet, your router translates your internal IP address to your external public IP address and sends the traffic on its way. When the traffic returns, your router says, oh yeah I remember you and then translates it back to your internal IP address.
If we're going to all geek out, let's use the right words. There's no translating going on. It's routing. This is why they call them ROUTERS. The ROUTER ROUTES traffic from the internet to wherever it needs to go on the other side of the firewall. and vice versa.
If we're going to all geek out, let's use the right words. There's no translating going on. It's routing. This is why they call them ROUTERS. The ROUTER ROUTES traffic from the internet to wherever it needs to go on the other side of the firewall. and vice versa.
yes, I'm trying to keep it simple for op. Just want him to understand there is an internal private IP address on his computer and an external public IP address on his router/firewall.
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