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I'm being stalked by a hacker. I've relocated and am trying to take all possible precautions. How can I prevent my WIFI from being hacked? Is there a way to prevent a hacker from finding my WIFI account? If the hacker finds my WIFI account, can't he just hack into my ISP to get my password?

Please use plain English, I'm not too familiar with computer jargon.

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  • Are you using WPA2-CCMP with a very strong password? – forest Jun 2 at 1:49
  • You're way over my head, Forest! I relocated and set up service with an ISP. I just looked it up and I see articles on "How to hack WPA2 with Aircrack-NG and Hashcat medium" so how secure is it? So, I read it is encryption - is it software? How is in installled? As for password, I use a string of upper and lower case letters, digits and characters. Thanks – SuziQ Jun 2 at 2:01
  • Look through your Wi-Fi settings for the type of encryption. Make sure it says WPA2. If it gives you an option between WPA2-CCMP and WPA2-TKIP, select the first one. Make sure your password is very long (20 or more pure random characters). Keep your router software up to date. If you are doing that, then the only way to hack your Wi-Fi is if someone can guess the password with a computer. A long random password makes it impossible to guess it before the sun burns out (literally). – forest Jun 2 at 2:03
  • OK on the password, I can make it longer. Where do I look for the WIFI settings? – SuziQ Jun 2 at 2:04
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    Would be worth noting that if WPS Pin is enabled, disable this, as it poses a serious vulnerability. With WPS Pin, anyone with the Pin can ask the router for the Wi-Fi passphrase, and it will return the passphrase to them, so changing this only is not enough. If WPS Push Button is available, don't be alarmed, the same vulnerability does not affect it. – safesploit Jun 2 at 4:24
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Just to clarify some things first: At your home, you might have say two computers, a phone, and a tablet. You think they are connected to the internet via WiFi, but they are not (usually): Somewhere in your home there is a router, which is connected to the internet through a phone cable or some other cable, and your computers, phone and tablet are connected via WiFi just to that router.

To hack into your WiFi, first someone must come close to your WiFi network. I mean physically close. The hacker could be in a car, not more than say fifty meters away. But they must be near you.

Your WiFi network should be encrypted (on your computer when the network is displayed there will be a padlock symbol or something similar). That means people including hackers can only get into your network if they know the password. So don't give that password to anyone.

Two precautions that you can take: 1. Never use http, but use https. For example, for this website enter https://security.stackexchange.com, not http://security.stackexchange.com. That means that everything will be encrypted, and the hacker cannot read it.

And use a VPN. Doing that means every internet access is encrypted (so the hacker can't read it), and it isn't sent to the internet directly but to the VPN server. So a hacker won't be able to see who you are talking to, they can only see that you are talking to the VPN server, and that information is useless to them. The VPN server will send your messages where you sent them to, but the hacker can't hack into the VPN server. The hacker can't read what you are sending because it is encrypted. And if you use https, then even if the hacker could decrypt the messages sent between you and the VPN server, they would still only get encrypted messages.

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Once your router is connected and you are on the wifi, you can connect to the router via the browser. Your ISP will tell you how. Then you can log in using the provided (by ISP or the router's manufacturer) name & password.

You'll find a settings page. You can change your router's login information there and then just look for the WiFi settings. Choose WPA2 (& if available: WPA2-CCMP) for the best security.

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