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While an IP address doesn’t give away much personal information, it can open a window of opportunity for hackers.
If you haven’t thought about the risk your IP could pose, read on to find out what someone can do with your IP address.
The device you’re reading this article on has a unique identifier known as an internet protocol (IP) address.
Without this numerical tag, it can’t open a website or other online services.
While the IP enables devices to communicate, cybercriminals can use it to exploit you.
Keep reading to learn what someone can do with your IP address.
Your computer has two IP addresses: a public IP, which identifies it to the wider internet, and a private IP to communicate securely with other devices on a private network.
Take your home network, for example.
The ISP assigns a public IP to the router, whereas each device in the network, such as TVs, PCs and mobile phones, has its own IP address.
Since your IP address is publicly available, malicious snoopers can use it for illegal activities.
Here are a few things someone can do with your IP address.
If someone with ill intentions has your IP address, they can use an IP lookup tool to find your geographic location.
The good thing is an IP doesn’t reveal your exact location. In most cases, it will only disclose your city and country.
The IP alone isn’t enough to learn your name, home address or phone number.
However, it is linked to your internet service provider.
As a result, a skilled hacker can use network attacks to get personally identifiable information (PII) from your ISP.
With an IP address, a hacker or malicious snooper can learn your approximate location, so they can better tailor their social engineering or phishing attacks to get hold of personal details.
These details include your phone number, name, mailing address, social handles, Social Security number (SSN) and birthdate.
That data set is a goldmine for identity thieves.
They will piece it together and try to impersonate you, sometimes for malicious purposes.
For example, downloading copyrighted files and child pornography, trafficking drugs or traversing the dark web.
If law enforcement authorities come calling, it will take a lengthy legal battle to prove you didn’t download illegal content or engage in criminal activities.
Since your IP is unique to your device, employers may use it to trace your digital footprints while you’re at work. Employee tracking isn’t illegal, but it’s an invasion of employees’ privacy.
Regardless, some employers are hell-bent on flushing out lazy employees who use the workplace network for social media, online gaming or shopping. In most cases, employee tracking can only happen when you’re connected to the work network.
Anyone can trace your digital footprints using your unique public ip address when you using the internet on any device in your home.
Devices on your network use IP addresses and ports to connect. A port is an opening an app or program uses as a communication endpoint.
Some apps share the same port, and there are thousands of ports for each IP address.
If a hacker has your IP address, they can use a port scanner, such as Nmap, to see the apps and daemons running on your device.
That will allow them to judge vulnerable apps and zero in on the port these other apps connect to.
They then launch attacks using social engineering techniques, like sending you spammed links.
The hacker could find a way into your device with sustained efforts.
Once they are in, they will steal your data, install malware, wreck your device or perform a ransomware attack etc.
The hacker must first find your IP address for all the above attacks. There are several ways a hacker can get hold of your IP.
If you fall into the hacker’s trap and send them an email, they only need to check the email header to see your IP address. Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Outlook put the IP in the header.
Gmail doesn’t display the IP in the header, but hackers can find it with the help of email header analyzers.
When you click a link, your device has to show your IP address for the web server on the other end to display the content you need.
Hackers may create a legitimate online ad then tap the information your device exchanges with their web server to get the IP address.
When downloading torrent files, the torrenting site displays the IP addresses of the peers list. Peers refer to torrent clients downloading the same file at a particular time.
Hackers could be among the peers, but they aren’t there to download the file — they want to steal the IP addresses.
A hacker can also target your router’s vulnerabilities or crack your password to gain access to your network. If you haven’t changed the router’s default admin login credentials, they use the standard passwords for most popular routers to log in and view your IP address.
Sometimes, hackers may masquerade as friends and ask to use your device.
If they’re using the device on your home network, it will take a few clicks to find your public IP and the private IPs of the devices on that network.
To stop hackers from getting your IP, you have to use the right cybersecurity tool to protect your online activities and adhere to a set of best practices.
A virtual private network (VPN) is the best tool to protect your IP address.
Nearly all the ways hackers get someone’s IP address are linked to online activities.
Using a VPN to protect your online activities can block most of the paths to hackers seeing your public IP address.
A hacker will only be able to see the VPN’s IP address, which has no details about your device, ISP or actual location.
Moreover, hundreds or even thousands of VPN users can share one IP address.
This helps you blend in with the crowd, making it nearly impossible to track you down.
What’s more, the VPN assigns you a dynamic IP address that changes regularly for additional anonymity.
Some VPNs offer static IP addresses, too, though those are only useful to businesses.
The VPN offers other benefits, too, including:
A VPN by itself can’t guarantee total anonymity and thwart hackers’ endeavors to steal your IP address. In addition to using the VPN, you should also: