We have said several times that it is not necessary to be a hacker to penetrate someone's computer network and, taking advantage of his carelessness or technical ignorance, spying on chat conversations, browsing history and access passwords to various services. Cyber security, in many ways, is similar to home security and the network that connects our computers and cellphones to the internet is like a house full of doors and windows, which can remain open or easy to open for anyone with access. .
Using some free tools that simulate hacker attacks, it is possible to find out how many vulnerabilities are on the net quickly and easily identify the "weak points", then having the possibility to remedy and secure everything before a violation occurs.
This speech is valid for everyone and fundamental for those who connect to the internet via wifi and live in populous areas and for those who manage offices and companies.
READ ALSO: Programs for network analysis between PCs and diagnostics of connectivity problems
First of all, let's see what happens if there are vulnerabilities and how simple it can be for a geek more or less shrewd to spy on the data that passes on the network even without having his access password.
For example, we have seen how to sniff the PC network and intercept internet traffic and passwords through innocent tools freely downloadable from the internet and how easy it can be to get the WPA / WPA2 Wifi network password if you do not disable WPS on the router.
If we now have an Android smartphone unlocked with root we can really exaggerate.
In fact, the cybersecurity company Zimperium allows you to download its demonstrative Android mobile app called zANTI that allows you to scan the network and find important vulnerabilities.
Finding these vulnerabilities it is possible not only to spy on computers on the network and see everything they do on the internet, but also to influence what others see, change images and modify, like a real hacker, what they see.
All with a simple and fully automatic app that verifies the possibility of attacking computers on the network with exploits, making man-in-the-middle attacks or MITM (to read, insert or modify at will, messages between two communicating parties between them) and simulate the main intrusion attempts used by modern hackers.
Even if you don't have an Android smartphone unlocked with root, you can see an example of what you can do with a video
From the PC, some programs can be used to test the network security .
1) Nmap is the most popular and well-known tool for checking network security, so much so that it also appears in some famous films such as Matrix Reloaded and Die Hard 4.
This free program that works on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, uses raw IP packets to find out data about the configuration of a network, including the services available, the operating systems running on the computers on the network and what type of firewalls they use.
Once the scan is complete, a "map" of the network will be presented and the best will also be able to discover the vulnerabilities present.
This is not a program for novices also because it has no graphical interface, but can only be used from the command line.
Nmap is also included as a test tool in zANTI.
2) Bitdefender Home Scanner is the simplest program on this list, which allows you to find vulnerabilities and possible security problems on devices connected to the network, especially on IoT devices (such as the thermostat, the IP camera, the smart TV and anything that connects to the router on the network).
3) Nessus is an easier to use and more powerful program, still free for personal use.
Nessus, which I had already talked about in the article on how to check if the PC is protected from malware and virus attacks.
Nessus works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and can be run on a home computer or even in a cloud version, online.
If there are vulnerabilities on the network that could allow a hacker to gain access to systems and within a protected network, Nessus finds out.
The tool is also capable of simulating denial of service (DOS) attacks against the TCP / IP stack using malformed packets.
4) Cain and Abel describes itself as a password recovery tool for Windows.
In reality it does much more and is capable of capturing and monitoring network traffic to find passwords entered by connected computers or phones, record VoIP conversations and retrieve wireless network keys.
Cain is therefore one of the best programs to test the strength of a password and its security, performing an attack looking for every word in a dictionary of common passwords and also doing a bruteforce attack test (trying every possible combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols) and trying to decipher passwords with a cryptanalysis attack.
5) Ettercap is a complete suite for man-in-the-middle attacks on the LAN, reading and altering the communication between two users who believe they are chatting privately.
This is indeed an easy-to-perform type of attack, especially if users are connected to a public, particularly vulnerable WiFi network.
The software can filter packets exchanged based on IP addresses, based on MAC addresses, putting the network interface in promiscuous mode to sniff all the data.
6) Wireshark is a popular package analyzer program that runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
It allows you to easily see what all users are doing on the network, allowing you to identify any abnormal traffic that could be generated by a trojan or malware.
In other articles we wrote the guide to use Wireshark to capture information on the network and intercept traffic and how to capture packets and spy on traffic on wifi networks
7) RSA NetWitness Investigator is a program to monitor the traffic of the home LAN network, similar to Wireshark but much easier to use and read, free of charge even if it requires filling in a download form.
EMC's NewWitness is a great tool for creating the illustrated report of online activities, including surfing the internet.
The program is quite large, around 130 MB, but it works on all recent versions of Windows.
8) Sparta is a very powerful and very easy to use program with a graphical interface that allows you to scan the network and perform various hacker attacks on the detected devices, in order to test cyber security.
In any case, we have written the updated guide to protect the wireless network from intrusion, eavesdropping and espionage .
READ ALSO: Check if you are protected enough on the internet and if your PC is safe
