If your IP address falls into the wrong hands, it can be used to steal your personal information and compromise your privacy. In this guide, we’ll explore how cybercriminals do this and how you can stay safe.
What’s an IP address?
Your public IP address is a unique string of numbers assigned to each of your internet-connected devices by your ISP. IP addresses are simply a way for your devices to communicate with internet servers, such as when you access websites and streaming platforms. In this way, they’re similar to how knowing someone’s home address allows you to exchange letters.
How can somebody find my IP address?
The Internet is designed so that devices share their IP addresses in order to communicate with each other. Bad actors can discover your IP in a number of ways, including:
Visiting Websites
Each time you click a link to visit a website, submit an online form or interact with the site in any way, the server on which it’s running is given your IP address. If a cybercriminal owns the domain, e.g. for a phishing site, then they’ll have access to your IP.
P2P (Peer to Peer) file sharing
By default, when you use programs to download and share files, e.g., via BitTorrent, each of your connected ‘peers’ can view your IP address. If one of these peers is a bad actor, like a hacker or copyright enforcement agency, your identity could be compromised.
Social Media
Although other users can’t usually view your IP, operators of social media sites like Facebook can log it in order to protect your account from unauthorized use as well as stop people who’ve been banned from creating new accounts. Knowing your IP address in this way isn’t dangerous, but if these logs are stolen or seized, then your privacy could be at risk.
Some email services include your IP address in the ‘header’ of any messages you send. This ‘X-Originating-IP’ field isn’t included by every email provider, but whenever you connect to their server to send an email, they can also see your IP.
Messaging Apps
Many popular messaging apps, such as Whatsapp, Telegram, and Signal, use P2P connections by default. This means that if you connect with the wrong person, they can harvest your IP address. Luckily, most platforms allow you to configure relaying calls via the provider’s server to prevent this.
Is tracing an IP address legal?
There is no specific law against an individual using online tools to try to trace someone’s IP address unless, of course, they are doing so to commit a crime.
How do I know if my IP address has been hacked?
As we’ve learned, IP addresses are a string of numbers assigned to devices to communicate with others via a network or the Internet. Your IP itself can’t be ‘hacked,’ but it can be used to trace your online devices so cybercriminals can try to compromise them.
Can an IP address reveal my identity?
Your ISP assigns your devices an IP address, and their records can link an IP address to the identity of the account holder. They usually won’t provide this information to any third party unless it’s requested by law enforcement.
What can someone do with my IP address?
Even though bad actors can’t always find your precise name and address via your IP, there are a number of ways in which they can undermine your privacy.
Find your approximate location
Armed with your public IP address, cybercriminals can usually pinpoint the state, your ISP and even your approximate location. Feel free to check our free online tool to see an example of this.
This can be used in combination with other information, e.g. your social media posts, to find out your real name and address.
‘Swatting’ attacks
These are where they falsely report a serious crime is occurring in your home. These cybercriminals know that Police can obtain your exact location from your ISP so they can send officers to your address.
DDoS attacks
“Distributed Denial of Service” involves hackers sending a huge amount of traffic to your public IP address. The idea behind these kinds of attacks is to overwhelm the devices behind the IP, such as your router, so you won’t be able to access the Internet.
DDoS attacks of this kind are sometimes launched using the IP of people playing online games like Fortnite to slow down or disrupt their connection altogether.
IP Spoofing
This technique involves hackers tampering with data packets sent over the Internet so they appear to come from your IP address. Although your data isn’t at risk, bad actors can then impersonate your device to carry out attacks like DDoS to frame you for crimes.
Port Scanning
In practice, even a skilled hacker would struggle to hack someone’s device just by using their public IP address. Still, your IP could be used as a stepping stone to scan your devices for vulnerabilities like open ports. The biggest risk here is that one of your devices is compromised; it could be used for further illegal activity. If law enforcement then traces the IP address of the device in question, it will lead back to you—not the hacker.
Ban/Fine you for Copyright infringement
As we’ve learned, whenever you share or download files using P2P apps like BitTorrent clients, your IP address is visible to all connected peers. Copyright holders sometimes take advantage of this by employing third-party companies to scan connected ‘nodes’ for users’ IP addresses, then demand their name and address from your ISP, who may hand it over.
Even if you don’t personally download files in this way, in certain jurisdictions like Germany, the ISP account holder is held liable for illegal file-sharing activities of everyone connected to their home network.
Display Personalized Ads
Your IP address can be used to serve you targeted adverts when you visit certain websites based on your approximate location and other identifying information. This is a form of browser fingerprinting.
Restrict your website access
Certain platforms, like Netflix, restrict the content you can view based on the country from which you’re connecting. They can see this information by analyzing your public IP.
Should I be worried if someone has my IP address?
Given the risks outlined above, we should all be concerned about what could happen if bad actors knew the true public IP addresses of our Internet-connected devices.
Can I change my IP address?
If you connect directly to the Internet, it’s likely your router and other connected devices have a ‘dynamic IP address’, so they will change your IP from time to time. This won’t offer much extra security as bad actors can still work out your approximate location and target your devices.
Will using a static IP help me stay safe online?
Some ISPs will offer a static IP service, meaning they won’t change your IP address. This can be very useful for some applications, like running a home server, but it won’t protect your devices from being targeted if your public IP falls into the wrong hands.
Can a proxy server hide my IP?
Suppose you connect to the Internet via a proxy server such as hide.me VPN’s free proxy browser, your IP address will appear to match that of the server, not your devices. This can be a good way to circumvent censored websites, but proxies aren’t specifically designed to hide your IP address and online identity. You can also experience performance issues when trying to stream content via proxy servers.
How can I best protect my IP address?
When you use a reputable VPN service like hide.me, your device connects to the Internet securely via a VPN server. The server itself fetches content you need so that anyone tracing your IP address will see that of the VPN server, not your device.
Is my IP address safe if the VPN server is hacked/seized?
When you use a VPN service, they can see your real IP address. This is why it’s important to choose a provider with a strong ‘no logs’ policy to ensure they do not store your IP or any other information about you. If this policy is in place, even if the server is compromised, your personal data will be safe.
What can I do if someone already has my IP address?
If you haven’t already, sign up with a reliable VPN provider. You can then use your VPN client app to switch to a new server, which gives you a new IP address on the Internet.
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