May 12, 2020  The Thunderbolt port used on computers and laptops has been found to have a serious vulnerability, one that allows a hacker to access the contents of your device within minutes. The port is a. Even if you aren't a sinister evildoer, there could be times when you need to get into a computer without the password. It's quite easy to do on a Mac, and learning how to do it can help. Run mac on windows. This method will work with all Mac OS ISO file, And in this article, I am using Mac OS Sierra 10.12. Run virtual mac on windows – VirtualBox. Step: 1 Download and Install VirtualBox software on your Windows Computer. Now open it, and then click on the new button to create a. May 08, 2020  Both macOS and Windows have come a long way since the early days of personal computing, and it might be tougher than ever to choose an operating system for your new computer. After all, you aren’t just buying a PC now—you’re buying into an ecosystem. So, if you’re wondering whether Windows or Mac is right for you, it can be a tough choice.

1. How To Hack A Windows Computer
2. How To Hack Into A Windows Computer

Sep 09, 2016  Most users lock their computer screens when they temporarily step away from them. While this seems like a good security measure, it isn’t good enough, a security researcher demonstrated this week. Security researcher Rob Fuller has discovered a unique attack method that can steal PC credentials from Windows and Mac computers.Fuller’s attack is effective against locked computers on. Jul 08, 2016  First let me tell you what will be covered into this post or how you will be able to hack a computer remotely. In this article we will use the microsoft office vulneribility detected in 2014 and which found mostly in windows 7 computers. The intresting thing we all know that windows 8 is not so different from windows 7.

Every day we see news about computers being hacked and how the cybercriminals make money off people clueless about the protection of their assets.

For someone not very technical, it may sound as if hackers are so powerful, and the only way to hide is to shut down all devices and go off the grid completely.

However, the truth is that there are several simple things one can do to make sure that we are reasonably safe when browsing the internet without affecting our ability to access the information we need.

Whether or not someone can hack into the computer or phone through WiFi depends on a person’s proximity to the WiFi router. If a cybercriminal in the range of access to the WiFi router, they can connect to the local network and perform various attacks, such as Man In The Middle attack.

If the hacker is outside of the WiFi range, then the way they attack will be different.

Let’s consider various scenarios of how the computer can be hacked and ways to protect your devices.

Hacking Computer Through Local WiFi

As you probably guessed, it is much easier to hack the computer, which is in close proximity to the hacker’s device.

For instance, your neighbor can connect to your WiFi and use your internet for free. Or you may connect to the free WiFi in the cafe or hotel, but someone already hacked the network, and now everyone, including you, is a potential target.

Or maybe you are using the office WiFi, and it was also hacked.

And it doesn’t have to be a computer, such as a Mac or PC. Your smartphone, iPhone, or Android, which uses the WiFi can be hacked as well.

Let’s see what hackers can do if they are physically connected to the WiFi you are using.

Man in the middle attack

If you have the internet at home from a cable, DSL, or fiber-optic provider, you have a router. Your computer does not directly connect to the internet; it sends and receives data by directing it through the router.

In layman terms, the process is the following:

1. Your computer or phone finds a WiFi router.
2. After submitting the correct password, the router sends back its MAC address. MAC address is an identifier of computer components, and in theory, it should be unique across billions of devices on the planet. The network card on your computer also has a unique MAC address.
3. After you get the MAC address of the router, all internet activity will be going through the router. In the pic below, there is a MAC address next to each device on the local network, and the router’s address is 11:22:33:44:55:66.

When a hacker connects to the local WiFi router, it also finds the MAC address of the router. The hacker changes his computer’s MAC address to be the same as routers one (11:22:33:44:55:66 in the pic below).

Now, all devices on the local network connect to the hacker’s machine, and then the data flows to and from the router. So the hacker becomes a man in the middle (MITM).

Once this happened, the hacker can read all outgoing requests and incoming data using various tools that collect such data.

This means every time you enter a username and password on some web site or enter your credit card number, and it gets saved on the hacker’s machine. Also, every URL you are visiting also gets saved.

There are some limitations, obviously. For instance, if the website uses the HTTPS protocol (S at the end stands for Secure), all traffic is encrypted between your computer and cybercriminals will not be able to crack it (in most cases).

However, if the web site uses HTTP, all data, including the password, is in cleartext.

So, if you want to avoid your data being stolen, always check that web site is using a secure protocol (HTTPS). In the browsers, the secure protocol is usually displayed with a padlock icon next to the URL.

Never enter passwords or financial information on web sites with HTTP!

How the router can be hacked

When it comes to your home WiFi, there are three ways for someone outside to connect to the router:

1. The router is not password protected
2. You tell the password. For instance, you told the guest the password, or she looked it up on the router (if you didn’t change the default one)
3. If the router is using an old authentication protocol

I am going to skip the first two and instead of focus on the last one. The authentication protocol used in with WiFi router is very important.

If your router is old, it is possible that it’s still using WEP protocol, then you should know that anyone who knows a little bit about hacking can hack the router literally in less than a minute.

So, if you have it enabled on your router, then go ahead and disable as I did.

What you should have is WPA2 with AES encryption. In the pic below, the authentication strength (protection from hacking) increases from top to bottom (WPA is less secure, and WPA2-PSK with AES is the most secure).

Some hackers employ a dictionary attack to crack WPA protocol, but it takes supercomputers to hack it. So as long as you are not a celebrity or a billionaire, nobody will spend so many resources to break into your network.

Usually, you can connect to the home router settings by going to the local IP address, such as http://192.168.0.1/.

How to tell if someone hacked your router

One of the sure routers hacked signs is the existence of an unknown device connected to the local WiFi network.

As I explained above, in order to perform a man in the middle (MITM) attack, the hacker must connect to the WiFI network first. And if he’s connected, you can see him too.

One way to find out the connected devices is through the router settings. Some routers allow us to see all connected devices and kick them out if needed.

Another way is to use a network scanner app. For instance, I found a cool app called Fing. The app is available for almost all platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows.

It is free (with ads) and doesn’t even require creating an account in order to use it.

One cool feature they have is scanning for open ports.

For instance, when I scanned my MacBook Pro, I found that remote desktop and screen sharing features were enabled, and anyone could connect to my Mac remotely.

How to protect from a MITM attack

While it is possible to scan and find unknown devices on the home network, this approach will not work with public WiFi networks, such as the one in Starbucks or the hotel.

You would never know if the public network was compromised. In this case, the only way to protect your privacy is to use a VPN (a virtual private network).

When connected to VPN, your computer or phone creates a secure encrypted channel with the VPN server. After the connection is established, all requests go to the VPN server. The server makes all requests on your behalf and returns the results back to you.

From outside, it looks like the computer is sending some garbage to and back to the same computer. Even if the hacker collecting the information, he won’t be able to tell whether you’re connecting to Google.com or MacMyths.com.

When choosing a VPN software, follow these best practices:

• Do not use a free VPN. They have significant limitations, and you know that good things are never free.
• Test for speed. Some VPS are significantly faster than others.
• Check the provider’s reputation. Since all requests now go through the VPN, technically, the VPN server becomes a man in the middle. So choose only reputable providers.

Personally, I am using NordVPN: it’s the fastest on the market and very inexpensive. It is available for multiple platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android.

If you use my NordVPN affiliate link you get a pretty steep discount for three-year plan for up to 6 devices.

Hacking Computer Remotely

We discussed ways to hack the computers and phones through local WiFi, but I know the question that most people ask is whether hackers can connect to the home network when they are on the other end of the world (or more than a hundred yards or meters away).

Fortunately, the answer is no, someone cannot get into your home network, even if they know the password if they are outside of the range (more than 300 feet).

Also, in most cases, hackers cannot get into your computer is off (link).

However, there are other ways to get into your system remotely. Do you remember a story of Bezos’s personal data being leaked?

In his case, he received a message on WhatsApp with malware attachment. When the malware was installed on his phone, it started sending the personal data to the server abroad.

Similarly, we are all at the risk of having malware installed on our computers and smartphones. Some malware open access to the device, so the hackers can access it remotely.

Or, the malware could be a keylogger, and in this case, even having HTTPS or a VPN will not help. A keylogger will record the keys pressed on the keyboard, and if it happens to be a credit card number, then the hacker will have it.

So, how to protect the devices from malware? You need to install an antivirus program.

There is a common myth that Macs cannot have viruses, but this is not true. I was able to inject my Mac with more than 100 malware samples when testing various antimalware solution.

You can check the results of my test and recommended antiviruses in my post: Best Malware Detection App for Mac.

Every time my friends and family ask me for a recommended antivirus, I go with Norton 360. It comes with the biggest bang for the buck and provides antimalware and other security features on all platforms. And it also has its own VPN!

Conclusion

We reviewed multiple ways how someone can hack into your phone or computer through WiFi. I also listed ways to prevent this from happening, which I wanted to reiterate.

If you worry about online security, consider investing in the following tools:

• VPN software
• Antivirus program

Be very cautious when connecting to public WiFi. I’d say if you don’t have VPN installed on a laptop or smartphone don’t use public WiFi, or at least avoid making purchases with a credit card or entering passwords.

If you are interested in the topic of security, there is a great course available on Udemy about ethical hacking. The instructor teaches how to hack computers ethically and most importantly what can you do to prevent from being targeted:

Also, check my other post:

Photo credit: ©canva.com/cyano66

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What is MAC Address?

MAC address (Media Access Control) is the unique number (identifier) which is assigned by network interface hardware manufactures and store them into their hardware. MAC address used in hardware interface devices such as ethernet port, 802.11 wireless networks, Bluetooth adopter and still more.

The MAC address is a 12-digit hexadecimal number which is ranging between 0000 0000 0001 – FEFF FFFF FFFF. This 48-bit address space contains potentially 2⁴⁸ or 281,474,976,710,656 possible MAC addresses. Know about to changing MAC address in your PC is much needed one to hide your online identity, avoid potential of data losses and fight against hackers.

Here is the step by step instructions about how to change your unique MAC address into custom one. The instructions which is illustrated below just for educational purpose, not to be used for illegal activities.

Before to change the MAC address, find the current MAC address to ensure the changes after you did. Go to your command prompt and enter the command ipconfig /all and hit enter. Your Mac address will be shown as illustrated below.

Based on the screenshot, the current MAC address is FE-FF-FF-FF-FF-FE. Let we change our MAC address using the following instructions.

How to Change them in Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 ?

For Windows XP Users

Step -1

Windows XP Users Navigate to Control Panel (Classic View) > Network Connections

Step -2

Select and right click on your network connection, and then click Properties.

Step – 3

Click and select local area connection properties Configure button as illustrated below.

Step – 4

Select the advanced tab (highlighted in red) as shown below.

Step – 5

Under advanced tab, Select Network address Properties and enter the custom 12-digit hexadecimal number (Custom MAC ID) ranging between 0000 0000 0001 – FEFF FFFF FFFF (without spaces) as shown below and click OK. (In this tutorial, we used FEFEFEFEFE as Custom MAC ID)

All done. The New MAC ID assigned as FEFEFEFEFE in your Windows XP computer. If you wish to revert back default MAC ID in feature, do the same steps illustrated above and select Not Present radio button and click OK button. So, the default MAC ID will be restored.

For Windows Vista Users

Step – 1

Windows Vista Users Navigate to Control Panel (Classic View) > Network and Sharing Center > Manage Network Connections

Step – 2

Click manage network connections and Select the appropriate Network icon, right click on it and select properties menu.

Step – 3

Under Properties, Click on Configure button to get into next step.

Step – 4

How To Hack A Windows Computer

Under Advanced adapter settings, Select Locally administered address menu and enter the Custom MAC ID as illustrated below and click OK. You’re done. (In this tutorial we used FEFFFFFFFFFE as custom MAC ID)

You are successfully changed the MAC ID now.

For Windows 7 Users

Step – 1

Navigate to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Network and Sharing Center

Step – 2

From the left pan click Change Adapter settings

How To Hack Into A Windows Computer

Step – 3

Select appropriate network connections adapter and click on Properties

Step – 4

Click Configure button to go through the next step.

Step – 5

Goto advanced tab and select the locally administered address menu, then enter thecustom MAC id you wish to change as show in the below screenshot and Click OK.

You’re done. For windows 7 operating system, we have used AAAA-AAAA-AAAA (without hyphens) as custom MAC ID.

To verify the MAC ID, simply go to command prompt and enter the command ipconfig /all. The custom MAC ID will be shows besides to physical address for the corresponding network adapter you have modified. To restore the default MAC ID in windows vista and Windows 7 operating system, follow the same steps as specified above (according to operating system) and click Use default button and Hit OK. The default MAC ID will be used there after.