What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address And How Can You Protect Yourself?

If you are concerned about the question - what can happen if someone has your IP address, then there are a lot of answer options and you will definitely not like most of them.

You can do this with a VPN or proxy, or ask your ISP to do it for you. In fact, this is the only correct action.

Many users are wondering: Someone has my IP address, what can they do with it? What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address? The topic of security is quite in demand among Internet users. That is why we wrote a detailed article about this below.

An IP address is the main way that helps identify a user on a network. Knowing his fraudster can significantly harm you. To do this, there are several ways that many attackers trade. Therefore, you need to try so that the IP does not leak into the network.

In addition to being careful, there are other ways to protect your IP address and keep the Internet safe. In particular, there are special VPNs for this, which help maintain privacy.

What is an IP address

IP (abbreviation in English stands for Internet Protocol) is the identifier of the device from which the Internet is accessed. It allows sites to determine where to send the information that a user requests when they connect.

In addition to identification, IP shows in detail:

• your country and city;
• Provider;
• Postcode.

How can I get an IP address

Fake Wi-Fi hotspot or secure connection.

If a user accesses the network from an insecure router and has a weak password, a skilled cybercriminal can log in and find out the IP address. Similarly, with a fake access point, where, when an inexperienced user connects to it, information about the IP is sent to the scammer.

By links.

When a user clicks on a link (for example, advertising), he finds his IP in front of the server of the site he looked at. Fraudsters often create such ads for the purpose of collecting information (in particular IP addresses).

By email.

Some systems may reveal the IP address of the email sender. These are services such as Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo.

Forums and social networks.

IP is available to the administration of these platforms. And some sites even put it in the fields under the comments left.

Torrent files.

Applications that download torrent files have access and reveal users' IP when downloading or sharing files on the system itself.

Own site.

This is a more non-standard way to find out the IP. Especially when hosting a site on a home service. In this situation, the hacker only needs to open a command prompt and type in the domain of the victim's website. In response, the IP itself will be displayed. In addition, there are special online sites for finding addresses, where you can also easily find yours. But when the site is hosted on the server of a large data center, there is no need to worry about information leakage at all.

From the site server logs that the user visited.

Each site owner or administrator sees the IP of visitors. Information can also fall into the hands of scammers.

Guest access.

If a person who is away has access to Wi-Fi, he can easily ask Google what current IP is being used.

What can an attacker do with an IP address and what is the danger of information leakage

Let's see what someone can do with your IP address:

Calculate location.

This information can be obtained from the IP address.

Arrange a DDoS attack.

This is the purposeful direction of traffic to a specific resource or device by IP address. Those. sending several requests at once, which lead to a ban on access to popular services or a complete cessation of network activity.

Substitute a user or restrict access to online services.

The approach is almost the same. All kinds of Internet services, in particular - gaming sites can make restrictions from unwanted users by their IP address. Fraudsters can use the IP of the victims and abuse the presence under their names on certain sites.

Get more information about the victim.

If a hacker is competent enough, he is able to recognize the provider using IP and use phishing attacks on him. And this leads to a serious leakage of information. If the hacker is more persistent, he can monitor the victim's activity on the network, which allows him to collect a lot of personal information about him.

Sell ​​to black markets.

IP addresses, along with other information, are often sold on various unscrupulous services to steal money. Particularly on the darknet.

Sue for copyright infringement.

Especially the danger threatens those who have tough laws against piracy and torrents in the country. For this, special agencies work that monitor all popular services and look for violators. It is enough to know only one IP of the one who is on the distribution. After that, the Internet provider itself will provide them with the rest of the information. Further, depending on the seriousness of the crime, they can send a notice of violation or immediately sue.

Extort money and threaten death.

All this is possible by manipulating IP knowledge and network activity.

Upload child pornography to a child.

And this will seriously harm his development.

Use the content

Traffic encryption

Protect Your Privacy And Security

Anonymous Browsing

which can threaten the national security of the country with the IP of the victim.

And all these illegal things can be done by scammers using your IP address after access to the device is obtained.

Is it possible that an attacker will gain access to my PC through the IP address?

It depends on different circumstances. As a rule, this does not always happen. Knowing a random IP is not enough to hack a device.

However, an experienced and savvy hacker can use it to detect open ports on your PC. These are certain devices for transferring data from a computer to a network and vice versa.

If a cybercriminal can find even one and take possession of it, it is quite possible that he will acquire remote control over your PC. This can only happen if the OS is outdated, the antivirus is turned off and the firewall is not working.

How to protect yourself

• Do not click on suspicious links and ads that can give your IP to scammers.
• Do not visit suspicious forums and social networks.
• If possible, hide the IP using a Proxy or TOR browser. Only these are not quite suitable options for surfing. A proxy is mainly business-oriented and costs a lot of money, while TOR can slow down when working.

The best tool for constant use is a VPN. This option is quite cheap than Proxy and offers additional security features. These include: traffic, multi-hop, encryption, etc. In particular, the NordVPN service, which can provide all this, should be noted.

What to do if IP became known to scammers

The answer is pretty obvious - change it. You can do this in the ways indicated above (i.e. mainly using a VPN). Another option is to ask your provider about it. Because The IP is assigned by the ISP, the company can help change the network address. So the first thing to do is to try this approach.

You should also ask if the provider issues dynamic IPs that change with each connection and access to the network.

Only for this service you will have to pay an additional amount. You may also need to fill out questionnaires with various suspicious questions.

If there is a fear that the scammer is using the address for illegal purposes, it is better to tell the security authorities about it ahead of time.

More tips to protect

Switch between available Wi-Fi.

If there is a fear that the IP address will get scammers and you can use several access points at once, you just need to regularly switch between them. Each subsequent connection will generate a new IP.

This is not a very convenient and suitable solution, but sometimes it helps. It should also be noted that when you are in public places, it is better not to use free Wi-Fi from them. Such access points do not contain encryption and therefore their clients can become victims of Internet scammers.

Switch to mobile internet.

If there are no third-party Wi-Fi networks nearby, another way to hide the IP is to connect using a smartphone. So, an IP will be issued that belongs to the mobile operator.

Detailed review of NordVPN

The NordVPN service contains its own protocol based on Wire Guard called Nord Lynx. It gives you the protection and speed you need without the danger of breaching your privacy.

In addition, NordVPN has IKEv2/IPsec and OpenVPN protocols and is able to easily and reliably bypass geographic restrictions.

One purchased NordVPN account helps the user secure up to 6 different devices. The service is compatible with systems such as Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS and Android. Its tools are available as extensions for different browsers (mainly Firefox and Google Chrome).

NordVPN has a database of over 5200 servers in 60 countries around the world. Therefore, when working on a network, a high speed is always maintained.

The official page of the service contains detailed instructions for using VPN. As well as information about protocols and other useful points.

The NordVPN utility selects the active server automatically. In the country that the user will designate. And in case questions arise, they are answered in a timely manner by actively working 24/7 technical support.

Competent specialists will definitely help you figure it all out.

NordVPN is a service that guarantees to hide online activity and other sensitive information. All devices that access the Internet will be protected. The service is constantly updated and improved. A new version is released every month. This work has already been appreciated by many users.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the potential risks associated with someone having your IP address, and what measures can be taken to safeguard it?

Risks include tracking online activities, location targeting, and potential cyber-attacks. To protect your IP address, use a VPN, secure your network, avoid suspicious links, and regularly update privacy settings on internet-connected devices.