What is an IP Address? What Hackers Can do with your IP Address? What to do if someone steals your IP address?

IP Address:

An IP address is a fascinating product of modern computer technology designed to allow one computer (or other digital device) to communicate with another via the Internet. IP addresses allow the location of literally billions of digital devices that are connected to the Internet to be pinpointed and differentiated from other devices. In the same sense that someone needs your mailing address to send you a letter, a remote computer needs your IP address to communicate with your computer.

No doubt you've heard the term "IP address." Unless you're a techie, though, you may not have more than a shadowy notion of what an IP address actually is or how it works. Let's explore the concept.

"IP" stands for Internet Protocol, so an IP address is an Internet Protocol address. What does that mean? An Internet Protocol is a set of rules that govern Internet activity and facilitate completion of a variety of actions on the World Wide Web. Therefore an Internet Protocol address is part of the systematically laid out interconnected grid that governs online communication by identifying both initiating devices and various Internet destinations, thereby making two-way communication possible.

An IP address consists of four numbers, each of which contains one to three digits, with a single dot (.) separating each number or set of digits. Each of the four numbers can range from 0 to 255. Here's an example of what an IP address might look like: 78.125.0.209. This innocuous-looking group of four numbers is the key that empowers you and me to send and retrieve data over our Internet connections, ensuring that our messages, as well as our requests for data and the data we've requested, will reach their correct Internet destinations. Without this numeric protocol, sending and receiving data over the World Wide Web would be impossible.

IP addresses can be either static or dynamic. Static IP addresses never change. They serve as a permanent Internet address and provide a simple and reliable way for remote computers to contact you. Static IP addresses reveal such information as the continent, country, region, and city in which a computer is located; the ISP (Internet Service Provider) that services that particular computer; and such technical information as the precise latitude and longitude of the country, as well as the locale, of the computer. Many websites provide IP address look-up services to their visitors, free of charge. If you're curious about your own IP address, you can locate these websites by performing a Google search.

Dynamic IP addresses: are temporary and are assigned each time a computer accesses the Internet. They are, in effect, borrowed from a pool of IP addresses that are shared among various computers. Since a limited number of static IP addresses are available, many ISPs reserve a portion of their assigned addresses for sharing among their subscribers in this way. This lowers costs and allows them to service far more subscribers than they otherwise could.

Static IP addresses: are generally preferable for such uses as VOIP(Voice over Internet Protocol), online gaming, or any other purpose where users need to make it easy for other computers to locate and connect to them. Easy access can also be facilitated when using a dynamic IP address through the use of a dynamic DNS service, which enables other computers to find you even though you may be using a temporary, one-time IP address. This often entails an extra charge, however, so check with your ISP.

Static IP addresses are considered somewhat less secure than dynamic IP addresses, since they are easier to track for data mining purposes. However, following safe Internet practices can help mitigate this potential problem and keep your computer secure no matter what type of IP address you use.

Can You Be Tracked Down Just by Your IP Address?

if an online computer user were doing something illegal (according to the laws in place), an agency might seek legal permission to contact the Internet Service Provider for information. With a subpoena in hand, they could ask the ISP to provide the online account holder's name and address. (Again, that would identify the person who pays the Internet service monthly bill, but not every individual who might have access to that account.)

But for 99% of us, that's an extreme case.

Staying safe online.

A popular means IP are obtained by sending an altered link to people that will go to safe places but the ip is also send to email or database of the sender every time someone clicks it.

You have to admit one thing, though—it is a little unnerving to realize that someone who has your IP address (or captured it at one time) has a pretty good idea of the region or city you live in. It can feel somewhat intrusive.

But keep in mind that it's not as if our names and addresses are listed in some public Internet phone book that's handed out.

In fact, the Internet is very anonymous in many ways. Most of the time, you give away your identity by establishing relationships, business and personal, online.

So, if you don't want someone zeroing in on your IP address, make it a habit not to be so quick to give up your name and address online, especially to people or companies you don't know very well.

Most people on the Internet are fair and honest, but there are plenty of others who aren't. Be smart online, just the way you are (we hope) in everyday life. Don't trust anybody with personal information until you know them well enough to trust them.

What can a hacker do with an IP address?

Or how do hackers obtain such confidential information?

These are the things that a hacker can do:

• If a hacker get hold of IP address of a server, he/she could launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on it, and make the service unavailable for the intended users.
• He/She could launch Brute Force SSH attacks and attempt to gain access to the machine.
• He/She could also scan for the services running OR any open ports on the host and would try to exploit it in some manner. (any FTP, Mail, Mysql, VNC etc)
• If the user and the hacker shares the same LAN, the hacker could target the user with Address Resolution Protocol spoofing and launch a Man in the Middle (communications attack) attack for all the internet communications.

So, as others have mentioned, your IP address is like your home address but it's your duty to keep yourself safe from all kinds of attack.

Always use a software firewall on your machine because you never know when/who all are trying to break into your host (house).

And regarding obtaining the IP address:
IP address is part of every internet communication, so there is not much work to do. However these are the ways you could disclose your IP to the attacker:

• Browsing a web site/forum of the attacker
• IM/chat with the attacker
• You yourself are hosting any website or services.

And At Last!

What to do if someone Steals your IP address?

Most of us may or may not know that an IP address can be stolen, hacked and used for illegal activities over the internet. Of course there is a way to determine whether the IP address has been stolen or not. We can compare our IP addresses with our home addresses. Just like our home address is used for delivering the packets on the right place, similarly the IP address is used for delivering right data packets at the right place. Although nobody, not even your ISP can know what internet activities you are doing. Yes but they can trace the activities of the public IP address- the one which is used by the router for internet access. And if any unpleasant activities are going on using your IP your ISP might contact you or warn you to stop any illegal activity, even if you are not doing them.

As said earlier the public IP address can be easily found on the internet. Your general location and your ISP can be easily found. Your ISP could think it as yours, and will do so if ordered.

Below are few possibilities through which you can suspect that something fishy is going on:

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• It’s possible that your family members or your roommates might be using you home network which has the same IP address. If not you then they might be doing anything illegal, knowingly or unknowingly. The best solution is to have a detailed discussion with them about what is going wrong and instruct them clearly to stop such activities, if anything suspicious is found.
• It’s quite possible that someone around your house can hack your Wi-Fi network’s password and using it without your consent. You can simply change the password of your Wi-Fi network and stop any illegal thing happen. This will also help in tightening your router’s security.
• As soon as your ISP starts giving notice about any illegal activity happening from your IP address which you’ve not done; you can suspect that your IP address has been stolen. You can ask them simply to provide you a new IP address.
• You can also keep in mind that mostly domestic ISP use the dynamic IP address; which means that the ISP will keep changing your IP address from time to time. If there is any sort of complaint from the ISP you can inform hem the time period for which you’ve used that IP address.
• It’s also possible that someone near or far off might be hoaxing your IP address. The solution is simple, just contact your ISP and ask them for a new one. If they co-operate any illegal activity can be stopped and the problem can be solved.

You can also unplugging your modem for 20-25 minutes and start it to obtain a new IP address, you can check you IP before and after to see whether it has changed or not at whatismyip.com. However there is no such big illegal or weird activity which can be done by stealing your IP address so there is nothing to worry much.

Thanks For Reading! :)

BY MR:47{XYBER SHEIKH}

Source:[ Internet /E-books ]