Evil Twin Research Paper

Words: 979
Pages: 4

Even a public WiFi network offering encryption such as WPA or WPA2 security still leaves you vulnerable to attacks because WPA and WPA2 only encrypts the WiFi traffic, and conceals the LAN communications. However, anyone who has the password to access the wireless LAN, which is everyone else connected to the same LAN, including the hacker, will be able to spy on the data traveling over that local wireless network. This is especially important for small businesses that aren’t using the enterprise version of WPA or WPA2 security, which prevents user-to-user eavesdropping. To encrypt all communication that traverses a wireless LAN, including WiFi traffic and any online web activity, a VPN should be used. With a VPN, a private tunnel is established between the end device and the end point. This means that, even …show more content…
This is known as an evil twin. An evil twin is essentially the wireless version of a phishing scam. With this type of attack, a hacker baits unsuspecting users into connecting to their fake access point. Once a user connects to the fake access point, all data sent on that wireless network will then be sent to the hacker’s device first. So, instead of talking directly with the WiFi hotspot, all data is first sent to the hacker, who then captures the traffic before sending it forward. To better protect yourself against this type of attack; it’s best to verify the legitimacy of the wireless connection before connecting to it, if at all possible. For example, if you can speak with an employee at the location that’s hosting the public WiFi connection then you could ask them for information about their access point, such as the network name and IP address. In the next section, I will discuss the evil twin attack in more detail. I will also provide you with recommendations that can be used to better protect