Identity Theft Through Unsecure Wireless Networks - Literature review Example

? Identity Theft through Unsecure Wireless Network Affiliation Identity Theft through Unsecure Wireless network It has beennoted with a lot of concern that internet makes life easier by keeping in touch with your loved ones, jobs and finances. Unfortunately, internet has become one of the ways that the thieves use to steal our personal and financial information. There are cases where unsuspecting customers have their user names and passwords hacked into by hackers who steal their credit card numbers and finally gain access to their money in various bank accounts and retirement funds. Unauthorized access also imposes high bills to the owner of the network where they involve lots of traffic by downloading videos and software. It is quite evident that a walk with a Wi-Fi enabled phone or laptop it’s easy to steal internet, this is just because most of the network have no security. It is also evident that most users use default passwords to access the administration area of the router thus enabling a cyber criminal to edit details with much ease and can even block the owner out of the connectivity. Malicious intruders can also get access to the network and do harm to devices to scan radio frequency bands which the Wi-Fi uses are readily available thus it easy to access their information using these devices. This can lead to even introduction of malicious software, viruses and worms thus invading computers in the network leading to great damage, this causes the user to loose vital personal identities. Although it may look good to help neighbors with free internet, the risks involved are numerous. The criminals can also modify settings thus ensuring that the restart button no longer functions properly, thus leading to blockage. How To Secure Your Network People have come up with a few prevention on secure measures to curb this problem. Some of the methods which are widely used are; activating your router’s encryption, some of the routers are bought when their encryption is turned off and all is needed is to read the manual on how to activate your router on. Turning your SSID off, turning it off will hide your network from hackers who might try and steal your identity by using network. Disable remote administration, this helps you prevent hackers from unilateral changing your network security settings. Recruit professional if needed, if one is not a computer tech one should employ a tech guru who will be able to set up settings which will prevent unauthorized access. Use of firewall, this is where a number of integrated collection of security measures are made in order to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system. Safety measures used to protect your information if a wi-fi is used. One should always be aware that they are never secure since the Wi-Fi hot spots are unsecure connections thus potential hackers will be hanging out in the same network and it won’t be difficult for them to get into your activity and retrieve your personal information thus though the hot spot has a password through a log-in screen you are still at risk. These are built-in security features contained in the windows that enable the firewall through the security settings to block all incoming traffic. This helps in keeping off all the hackers/thieves by disabling file sharing thus making an important security measure. One should protect their passwords since hackers can retrieve same passwords from the registry which makes your keyboard activity available to them that includes the password typed in, thus installing a browser add-on that stores you password in the cloud e.g. last pass, passwords won’t be saved in your computer and you won’t have to type a thing. There are websites that use HTTP’s, they encrypt your activities thus anything you do in that site is confidential. Since not all websites do this one can download HTTP’s everywhere, they are add-ons that will force an encrypted connection on many popular sites. You should also check the network name since people may set up fake networks by checking the venues and employees to confirm the name of their network. Common sense should also be used by treating all open networks with a security risk.(Cs 23) How To Protect Wi-Fi Theft HTTP security; this is a transfer protocol that allows the sending and receiving of data over a transfer medium. Hackers and other computer malicious personnel tap through the medium in search of valuable user codes and passwords. During the transmission we can employ data encryption programs which will encrypt and decrypt the sensitive information. By doing this it will be hard for hackers to interpret the passwords thus providing a security measure for your data and information. Use a VPN; during the creation of a website you need to implement a huge controllable HTTP. You must not assume that since a website is popular it does not have loop holes, VPN is where a network is made private even when it is used publically. It enforces a security measure whereby the connection between your computer and the server is encrypted during the sending and receiving of data. Even though the VPN makes your wireless network secure is limited to certain traffic per day after which the user will have to pay more because of the band width consumption. Tunnel for safety; this is a method whereby a data packet is placed inside another packet by using a different network transmission mode. SSH tunneling, is a protocol where data packet is placed inside a SSH packet for encryption purpose. (Security 78) Change the router defaults; this where you change the factory defaults to more secure and complex login credentials to prevent an unauthorized access to your router. Use of MAC addresses; this is method where the use of numbers called Machine Access Code which are unique to protect the devices from an unauthorized personnel. These are mainly enabled in notepads and desktops which one is advised to change the manufactures settings. The use of intelligent routers filters access of pre-approved devices by letting those with authorized access to log into the network and prohibit those without authorized access. You can the command prompt by typing the internet protocol configurations (ipconfig.all) to view the physical addresses of the MAC addresses of all computers connected to the network. This is a very advantageous way of securing your wireless network because only one machine or a device can posses a MAC number owned by one user. (Theft 35) Reduce wireless signal range; your router might have a good signal strength but you can try limiting it at a specified area by decreasing the transmitting power instead of using higher signal strength like 802.11b you can use transmission modes such as 802.11g. Other approaches used to limit your wireless signal are like placing your router inside a hall where you want the signal to be received. Other methods you can employ are like; wrapping your antennae with foils you can also avoid placing your router near the window but this may slow or boost your connection depending on how you do it. Disable remote administration privileges; this has been considered the best way to prevent an unauthorized personnel looking into your security settings. This uses an option which is directly located in your routers administrative settings where it requires all the security modifications through a wired connection to your router. Try one or all of these; as we know it is hard to protect fully a wireless network from an unauthorized personnel but by use of these steps one is fully assured that his/her wireless signal is better protected. It is more convenient to use all of these steps rather than using one or two steps. Another additional method which is common to all is by switching off your wireless network when not in use since prevention is better than cure thus creating in mind that security is not something to ignore. Conclusion; the best way to ensure that information is not obtained when using a public Wi-Fi is not only by sending any sensitive information over the network but also keeping into consideration the above steps. Of the above named steps use of HTTPS is the worst mainly because only specific information can be encrypted and is only designated to a site rather than the user but it’s still better than nothing. A computer is expressed as a gold mine for any person who is determined to steal another person’s identity. What type of information can hackers get from your computer? Social security numbers, credit numbers, passwords, email addresses, passport number and pins. After getting access of this information the hackers get to commit some of the crimes like; credit card fraud, tax fraud, government benefits fraud, loan fraud, phone or utilities fraud, employment related fraud and bank fraud; all this facilitates forgery, counterfeiting, impersonation, pick pocketing and even terrorism. Challenges Faced In Preventing Hacking. It’s a mistaken belief that firewalls make your data secure while in fact most of the internet break –ins occur in spite of the firewalls being in place, therefore the firewalls should be up-graded to ensure that these cases have declined. Most of the computer users are not accountable in managing and securing their data or information thus most of the hackers find it easy to retrieve their information. The user’s lack knowledge regarding security measures of their identities through online connections where the users use media sites which lack security. After a successful identity theft they usually leave victim’s credit reports in ruins more so when it happens the financial institution pays the victim leaving it in a financial loss thus leads to increased fees for the other consumers. Some of the investigation becomes difficult to solve since jurisdiction issues bring about confusion where some of the law enforcement agencies have no familiarity with. Harms Caused By Identity Theft. It has been reported that over 15 million victims a year in US are victims of identity theft, they experience long term and well-documented pain and suffering, these includes; harassment from debt collectors, others experience loan rejection, utility cutoffs and even get arrested for identity theft. People also experience financial losses, these can even add up to 5 billion dollars unsettled. This can be stolen from banks or even businesses leading to greater losses. The government also experience losses during law enforcement where in US it ranges from 15000-25000 dollars to investigate each case. References Craig .J, (2009), Security, Computer security, New York, New York publishers Lewis .B, davis.P,(2004), Wireless Networks For Dummies,john wiley & sons Nolo Amazon.com   Find in a library All sellers » My library My History Books on Google Play Mitic. S,(2009)Stopping Identity Theft: 10 Easy Steps to Security Nolo Jahankhani.H,(2010)Handbook of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics,World Scientific. Andert.S,Burleson.D(2005),Web Stalkers: Protect Yourself from Internet Criminals & Psychopaths,Ramphat TechPress. Vacca.J,(2006),Guide to Wireless Network Security,Springer Schell.B,Martin.C,Webster's New World Hacker Dictionary,wiley Read More