How an Attacker Could Crack Your Wireless Network

It’s important to secure your wireless network with WPA2 encryption and a strong passphrase. But what sorts of attacks are you actually securing it against? Here’s how attackers crack encrypted wireless networks.

This isn’t a “how to crack a wireless network” guide. We’re not here to walk you through the process of compromising a network — we want you to understand how someone might compromise your network.

First, let’s start with the least secure network possible: An open network with no encryption. Anyone can obviously connect to the network and use your Internet connection without providing a passphrase. This could put you in legal danger if they do something illegal and it’s traced back to your IP address. However, there’s another risk that’s less obvious.