Is it possible to hack into our banking credentials by breaking local WiFi network?

[Ema Jacksonphilips]

Hi, One of my friend reported that her account was hacked as her router firmware was outdated. the forensic experts figured that the attacker used a mobile device on android platform. Is it really possible to hack into a wifi network using an android device? :-!

 

[Ema Jacksonphilips]

The experts actually traced out his MAC address and later found that MAC id is a spoofed id and they are completely helpless on this situation.

 

[VigneshB]

Any wireless network which is secured with an authentication type lower than WPA-2 can be breached with relative ease. Also an un-patched firmware is a risk. A modern mobile device does have the necessary computational power to perform such an attack.
Spoofing a MAC address is also quite easy which a quick Google search would bring up.
Though the more important issue is to secure the bank account. I don't know about the laws of your country.

 

[Almeuit]

As said above any WiFi network can be hacked by the data being sent between the device and the bank is encrypted and can't just be easily picked out.

 

[mar29020]

i just had my bank acct hacked last night.

 

[Ema Jacksonphilips]

Hi, Vignesh we are sharing same room in a residential (heavily populated area,NJ).
Some times we are unable to connect with our router using wifi (later somebody came up with a solution of changing to channel 11). I believe my security is also at risk. Please suggest some possible solutions.

 

[Ema Jacksonphilips]

As said above any WiFi network can be hacked by the data being sent between the device and the bank is encrypted and can't just be easily picked out.

Almeult are you saying that they hacked it from the Bank's computer? but the problem is only reported for us.

 

[VigneshB]

Hi, Vignesh we are sharing same room in a residential (heavily populated area,NJ).
Some times we are unable to connect with our router using wifi (later somebody came up with a solution of changing to channel 11). I believe my security is also at risk. Please suggest some possible solutions.

First of all update your firmware. Use WPA2 authentication. Turn off WPS. Hiding SSID, MAC address filter won't help much rather than increasing inconvenience. May I suggest you to use a complex password for the network. And also turn off any remote access to the router.
You can get a lot of resources on how to secure a network on the internet with a quick Google search. But, you would need to separate the wheat from the chaff!
Those disconnections can be a sign on interference. Channels 1,6, 11 have the least overlap, but on a heavily populated area, even those can be troublesome. It is better to find your ideal channel using some Wifi analyzer app.

Almeult are you saying that they hacked it from the Bank's computer? but the problem is only reported for us.

What he said was though the Wifi network can be breached, it is highly improbable that the data sent between your friend's PC/mobile and the bank can be deciphered since they are encrypted. Though possible, that is not feasible by any script kiddie.

 

[Ema Jacksonphilips]

First of all update your firmware. Use WPA2 authentication. Turn off WPS. Hiding SSID, MAC address filter won't help much rather than increasing inconvenience. May I suggest you to use a complex password for the network. And also turn off any remote access to the router.
You can get a lot of resources on how to secure a network on the internet with a quick Google search. But, you would need to separate the wheat from the chaff!
Those disconnections can be a sign on interference. Channels 1,6, 11 have the least overlap, but on a heavily populated area, even those can be troublesome. It is better to find your ideal channel using some Wifi analyzer app.


What he said was though the Wifi network can be breached, it is highly improbable that the data sent between your friend's PC/mobile and the bank can be deciphered since they are encrypted. Though possible, that is not feasible by any script kiddie.

Yes, you are correct. We hired a private technitian and he swaped the old router with new one. He said that the new one is more advaced than our old (4 year old ) router. He mailed me some details and suggested me to read an article regarding the wifi security( Identifying Dangerous Wi-Fi Vulnerabilities | Aspire Federal Credit Union ).
He told me not to share wifi passwords with nobody as we are using it to access bank's nwrk. He adviced me to change our wifi password arleast onece per month. I think the last point means our wifi sysytem us still vulnerable

 

[Ema Jacksonphilips]

He also told us to use lan cable with computer if we need to completely avoid security issues with wifi

 

[boris davenport]

Ema, Wired connections are always secure than wireless connections. That doesn't mean that wired(Your LAN) is completely hack proof.
As Vignesh said hiding SSID is one the best practice in wireless network security. But I heard that some Python scripts were there to reveal hidden SSIDs.
I advise you to frequently change your wifi password (use alphanumeric with special characters eg: Tkj^8%L~us )and keep the SSID hidden.
If you need to go some miles on wireless security I advise you to limit the wifi transmission power, so that the range/coverage of wireless network is limited to your apartment. (most of the router manufacturers are using Omnidirectional antennas for their routers, if you are having a directional antenna you can skip this step)
Script kiddies or hackers or whatever you call those people need good signal strength to hack into your network, by the above step you are limiting their chances.

additionally, you can implement these steps
*Turn on Your Wireless Router's Firewall
*Disable the "Admin Via Wireless" feature on your router also try to
*Change your default password

Hope all these will help you from further attacks
Stay safe
Boris

 

[Ema Jacksonphilips]

Thank you, Boris, for this much helpfull info.
I am not that much technical like you guys, I will keep this one in my mind and stay safe.
I was searching about "Python" that you said and found that it is a programming language and hackers are using it.
I don't know whether I am having a directional antenna for my router, Is there any way to identify that?
I will contact my local computer technician regarding the issues about firewall and admin issues
Thanks a million for this much support
Ema

 

[boris davenport]

Happy to see that you understood the security issues related to Wireless networks. Ema most of the OEM provide Omnidirectional antennas for commonly available home routers. IF you need more clarification on this matter please check it with our Router support. If you need to know more about different Wifi antennas please refer this article https://nci.ca/how-your-wifi-antenna-does-what-it-does/