Hackers Steal The Credentials And Permissions Of An Organization’s Users In A Variety Of Ways. However, Some Methods Are More Popular With Hackers. 

In all cases, hackers’ ultimate goal is to gain the highest privilege to access sensitive organizational resources, disable security mechanisms, extract data, delete backups, and install malware or ransomware.

Professional hackers don’t expect to get a domain administrator’s account through a phishing email, so they start with more specific targets and work their way up to the primary target based on a step-by-step plan.

Known methods in this field include phishing, pervasive search, social engineering (a person pretending to be a trusted IT service provider and requesting to create a user account), SQL injection, etc.

IT infrastructures are constantly exposed to cyber-attacks. These attacks are carried out for various reasons. For example, a cyber attack on production units is carried out to disable industrial devices and production lines. In contrast, an attack on companies active in the financial and insurance fields is carried out to steal user information. An important thing to be aware of is that hackers are not only attacking infrastructure through Internet-connected LANs but sometimes through wireless networks.

An organization infiltrates the infrastructure and causes irreparable damage.

Today, most government agencies and private companies use wireless networks to connect clients to the network. Accordingly, it is necessary to be familiar with the attacks and mechanisms of dealing with cyber attacks on organizational and home wireless networks.

In today’s world, users have at least one phone with the ability to connect to the Internet. As the number of smart devices increases, implementing a security strategy to minimize cyber attacks is essential, mainly as the Internet of Things is used in some manufacturing units and even smart homes.

Devices connected to the wireless Internet, such as smartphones, may be used by hackers to collect personal information, steal identities, steal financial data or attack bank accounts, eavesdrop or watch users’ activities. Accordingly, it is essential to know enough about the dangers of wireless networks and take measures to minimize the scope of malicious threats.

What risks do wireless networks face?

A home or business network is both equally vulnerable to cyber threats. In the first case, hackers may infiltrate a home wireless network and install malware on client devices to use the user’s home network to attack other targets in the future. In the second case, hackers penetrate the organizational wireless network to steal or damage corporate information. And in general, wireless networks face the following threats.

Piggybacking

If you don’t secure your wireless network, anyone with a laptop within range of your access point can use your network. Typically, good access points and even enterprise-class routers can cover a distance of up to 30 meters, but if you use outdoor access points with a high coverage factor, this range can extend up to 304 meters. So, if you live in an apartment or your workplace is in a commercial complex, not securing your wireless network or implementing an open wireless network allows users to connect easily to your network, perform illegal activities, and record your web traffic. Or steal personal files.

Wardriving

Wardriving is another piggybacking attack. As we mentioned, a wireless access point can extend a wide range. If you place it at a height and there is no physical obstacle in its way, the signals can receive from a much greater distance from where you live or work. Professional hackers are well aware of this and try to find unsafe wireless networks by roaming around commercial or residential complexes using their laptops, which are sometimes connected to powerful antennas. This practice is known as wardriving.

Evil Twin attacks

In an evil twin attack, hackers gather information about a corporate or public network and implement their network by impersonating them. In this case, hackers use a stronger broadcast signal than the original access point signal so that users’ devices receive this signal. Next, users unknowingly connect to a network that sends a stronger signal.

Since the victim connects to the Internet through the attacker’s system, it is easy for the attacker to use special tools to read the information the victim sends over the Internet. This data may include credit card numbers, username and password combinations, and personal information. For this reason, it is recommended to always verify the authenticity of a public hotspot before connecting to it. In this case, you will be sure to connect to a reliable access point.

Wireless Sniffing

Statistics show that most of the public access points that users connect to are not secure, and the traffic these networks transmit is not encrypted. So that they put sensitive communications or transactions at risk since joining a site means sharing information; hackers can use eavesdropping tools to obtain sensitive information such as passwords or credit card numbers. For this reason, you should ensure that all access points you connect use at least WPA2 encryption.

Unauthorized Computer Access

An unsecured public wireless network combined with an unsecured file-sharing mechanism can allow hackers to access any directory or file that is being shared, either intentionally or unintentionally. Ensure you disable the file and folder sharing mechanism when you connect your devices to public networks. Enable the sharing mechanism only on trusted home or corporate networks, and enable the above feature only when sharing is necessary. Make sure file sharing is disabled if not required. The above approach prevents hackers from accessing files stored on computers and mobile devices.

Shoulder Surfing

In public places, hackers can easily observe the buttons you touch or press while typing usernames and passwords and steal sensitive information. To solve this problem, some companies and organizations use screen protectors that limit people’s viewing angles. These protectors can purchase at a small price. For smaller devices, like cell phones, it’s best to make sure someone isn’t looking at the phone screen when entering sensitive information.

Theft of Mobile Devices

Hackers don’t have to spend their time only hacking wireless networks to gain access to user data. Sometimes, they try to gain unlimited access to all the data stored on the device through physical theft or use it to access the user account information (username and password). It is necessary to take measures to protect devices in situations where the device is lost or stolen. Most mobile devices, such as laptops, can fully encrypt user information. In this case, hackers cannot enter the computer and steal its data without having a password or personal identification number (PIN).

In addition, it is recommended to encrypt the data on the device before sending it to the cloud and set a password for the programs that will access the sensitive information. Finally, encrypt files that contain personal or sensitive information separately or protect them with passwords.

What should we do to minimize the risks around wireless networks?

To protect wireless networks from hackers, you must follow some security principles to make it harder for hackers to break into a home or corporate wireless network. Among the essential principles that you should pay attention to are the following:

Change default passwords

Most networked devices, such as wireless access points, are available to users with default passwords. These default passwords are publicly available online and are, therefore, not a robust security mechanism. Changing default passwords makes it harder for attackers to gain access to devices. Periodically changing and choosing complex passwords is the most critical solution you have to protect networked devices.

Restrict access

Allow only authorized users to access the network. Every hardware device connected to a network has a Media Access Control (MAC) address. You can allow only a limited number of devices to connect to the network by filtering the MAC addresses that can access the network. Typically, hackers need to connect to a network to break into it and crack the password, but if they can’t do that, they won’t be able to carry out further malicious operations.

The above feature allows you to maintain your privacy and provide an initial credential to users who intend to connect to the corporate network but are not company employees. In addition, you can use the “guest” account, which is one of the most used features of wireless routers. Users will access a separate wireless channel with a different password in this case.

Encrypt data on your network

Encrypting wireless data prevents hackers who have managed to break into the wireless network from eavesdropping through techniques such as man-in-the-middle. There are various encryption protocols to protect data, with WPA2 and WPA3 being the most powerful algorithms for data encryption.

Currently, WPA3 is the most robust encryption algorithm. In a situation where WPA2 and WPA are available options for data encryption, but if the router supports WPA3, it is better to use the above algorithm because security experts have managed to identify vulnerabilities in WPA and WPA2 protocols.

Use the SSID feature.

One of the solutions that security experts of organizations use to deal with hackers is not to publicly release the SSID of the Service Set Identifier. Wi-Fi routers and access points allow users to hide their device’s SSID. It makes it more difficult for attackers to find the network. Additionally, it is recommended to change the SSID to a unique name. If you use the default names chosen by the manufacturer, you allow hackers to identify the type of router and use vulnerabilities detected in the firmware to penetrate the network.

Install a firewall

Typically, most routers come with a pre-configured and installed firewall capable of blocking malicious traffic. However, installing firewalls, such as host-based ones, will increase the security of the enterprise network. Hackers who can get past security mechanisms may get past ordinary firewalls, but a host-based firewall provides an extra layer of protection to protect data.

Keep your antivirus software up to date.

Antivirus software works best only with the latest virus and malware signatures. In addition, most antivirus programs have additional features to deal with spyware and adware.

Sharing files should be done based on specific arrangements.

First, you should pay attention to file sharing between devices should be disabled if not needed. When enabling the sharing feature in operating systems such as Windows, you must specify whether you intend to share the file on a public or private network. Also, it is recommended to create a dedicated folder for sharing files and disable access to folders on a drive.

Any file or document to be shared should be password protected. Finally, the most important thing to remember is never to select the entire hard drive for file sharing.

Keep your access point firmware up to date.

Wireless access point manufacturers periodically release updates and patches for their product firmware. For this reason, you should regularly check the manufacturer’s website to receive and install any updates or patches released on your device.

Connect to the organization’s primary network using a virtual private network

Most companies and organizations use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Virtual private networks allow employees to connect to the corporate network while working remotely securely.

What the private network does is that it encrypts the communication from the very beginning of the communication, So that any information that is sent from the user’s computer to or received from the corporate network is encrypted from the start.