If You Are Reading This, I Hope You Are Using A VPN
I’ve read about how you should be careful when using public wifi because someone could get your data. You probably have too. Reading articles like this one has made me more cautious about connecting to public wifi networks. However, I had no idea how easy it was for someone to get your data until last week when I started researching for an assignment. The ease at which someone can learn about what you are doing online is slightly terrifying.
If you want to see how easy it is, go to this website and download Wireshark. In less than five minutes, you will be able to see the traffic on the network you are connected to. At this point, it is probably just the traffic to and from your own computer. However, it is easy to see what everyone else on the network you are connected to is doing. You just need to choose the correct settings and have the right computer. If you don’t have the right computer, you can buy a USB device that will let you see network traffic for less than 50 dollars. This post here will help you select the best ones.
What is frightening isn’t that it is possible to look at someone’s web traffic. I’ve known that hackers could do that since I started using the internet. What is unnerving is how apparently easy hacking is to learn. It took me five minutes to download and install Wireshark. It took me two more minutes to perform a quick google search on how to look at pictures in Wireshark and be able to do this:
This picture is from an HTTP webpage that I clicked on. After filtering for HTTP packets that were captured and clicking “control, shift, o”, I could instantly see a picture that had been sent to my computer. If you want to try it yourself, this post from Aishika Saha explains precisely what to do.
If I could do this in less than 10 minutes, imagine what an experienced hacker can do in that time. There is a surprising amount of information out there about how to hack networks.
Last night, I watched a YouTube video showing how to crack a network password and then use Wireshark to view information being sent on it. The video was about an hour long. I would have needed to do more research if I actually wanted to crack into networks, but not much more. What was fascinating was how causally they were explaining the process. It was almost like watching a cooking show, except they talked about how to steal passwords and spy on people instead of how to bake a cake.
I have also recently read book after book about how to ethically hack networks. You can learn how to direct someone’s network traffic to your computer to spy in a few hours. Once you’ve done that, you can see everything they do or even manipulate their data before sending it on. I’m sure it takes much longer to get really good at hacking, but you could probably cause someone a lot of trouble after a weekend of research. You wouldn’t even need to read books to do it; there are plenty of videos on YouTube to learn from.
This new information has made me very grateful that I generally use a VPN when I am on the internet. I accidentally left it connected while looking for HTTP websites to try to capture using Wireshark. Without the VPN, my Wireshark capture looked like the one below. You can see lots of information about what web pages I was visiting and even what was I was looking at on some of them.
All I could see with the VPN on was communication between my computer and one other IP address. Everything was sent using the UDP protocol, and when I clicked on one of the instances to try and see a picture, all I got was a garbled mess.
One of the best ways to protect yourself against hacking is use a reliable VPN. One of the reasons VPNs are so effective is they encrypt all of your data before sending it across the internet. So, if someone does manage to get access to your data, it is a lot harder for them to understand it. It doesn’t guarantee that your data will be safe, but it is very likely to make someone leave your data alone and move onto an easier target. If you want to read about why most hackers won’t bother hacking someone using a VPN, this article explains it very well.
After seeing what a hacker might see on Wireshark, I could truly understand the difference that one simple thing could make. I was previously using a VPN to access information I need to complete assignments for my degree, but I will also be using it for security reasons in the future. If you decide to do the same, please make sure you get a reliable one. This article by Mike Tee can help you.
Resources:
Here’s Why You Need to Stop Using Public WiFi by Renee Johnson, Published on TechNadu on September 16, 2021
CAPTURING IMAGE DATA PACKET ON WIRESHARK by Aishika Saha on Medium
Can a VPN Be Hacked? — All You Need to Know About Common Hacking Techniques! by Novak Bozovik, Published on TechNadu on August 27th, 2019
Not All VPNs Are Safe — How to Tell If a VPN Is Secure by Mike Tee, Published on Make Tech Easier on June 10, 2021
