How do hackers actually obtain your IP and do (and if so how) VPNs stop them?
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There are many ways hackers can get your IP. VPNs don’t necessarily protect from hackers. Instead, they hide where the request is coming from. This is more for accessing restricted content.
Imagine I wrote you a letter, and handed it to you personally. You would know it came from me, cause, well, I handed it to you. Now imagine I mail the letter to you via the post office, with a PO Box as the return address. You have no idea who sent the letter, since the post office handles millions of transactions, but you can still reply by sending letters to my PO Box. The VPN is the post office.
Honestly, the idea that your IP address is somehow a secret is utter bullshit. Knowing your IP address doesn’t give hackers anything useful, anymore than knowing your address would give burglars anything useful.
As to how a VPN helps, it forwards all your traffic through a different PC at a different IP address, similar to using a PO box in postal terms. It prevents them from knowing your IP address, but as I said, that isn’t exactly a big secret
Every Internet request you send out contains your IP address. It has to or the other server would have no way to send a response. A VPN acts as a middleman in the process: you send a request to the VPN, and then the VPN sends a request to the destination server; when it gets a response it sends it along to you. The result is that the destination server sees the VPN’s IP address instead of yours.
Anytime you do anything online, your computer sends messages with your IP address in it. It has to do this so that the servers you are contacting know where to return their traffic to complete your request (whether thats loading a website, watching a movie, playing an online game, or something else).
Unless you are a wanted criminal or have mortal enemies, exposing your address by using the internet is not a big deal. Your address is public information, like your street and house number. On the other hand, if you value your privacy a lot, you can use a VPN service. The VPN acts like a P.O. Box, allowing you to substitute the address of another institution in place of your home address. By using the VPN / P.O. Box, advertisers and other spies are unable to associate you with your home address, nor indeed differentiate you from anyone else who also uses that Post Office / VPN. Therefore, the websites you interact with are less able to build a profile to serve you targeted advertising.
But it’s worth stressing that VPNs exploit peoples’ ignorance about the nature of hackers and spies to make them afraid _not_ to use a VPN. The reality is that while they do indeed help protect your privacy, you generally have no fear of being targeted by hackers anymore than you should fear that a stranger will rob your house if they figure out where you live. The only thing to be concerned about are people serving you advertisements and junk mail, just like the targeted junk mail that lands in your real mailbox every day. If you want that to stop, religiously protecting your home address by using a P.O. Box might help put an end to that. It’s up to you to decide if it’s worth the monthly cost to keep that P.O. Box open.
An IP address is a unique numerical label that is assigned to every device that connects to the internet. It serves as the identifier of your device on the internet, and it is used to route information and data between different devices.
Hackers can obtain your IP address by using different methods and techniques. For example, they may use network scanning tools to identify devices on the internet that have open ports or vulnerabilities, and then use these vulnerabilities to gain access to your device. They may also use social engineering tactics to trick you into revealing your IP address, such as by sending fake emails or messages that appear to be from trusted sources.
Once a hacker has your IP address, they can use it to gain access to your device and steal information from it. They may use malware or other malicious software to infect your device and take control of it, or they may use remote access tools to remotely access and control your device.
To protect your IP address and prevent hackers from obtaining it, you should take steps to secure your device and network. This may include using antivirus software and firewalls, keeping your operating system and other software up to date, and avoiding suspicious emails or messages that may contain malware.
A virtual private network (VPN) is a type of network that allows users to securely connect to the internet and access online services and content. It uses a combination of encryption, tunneling, and authentication protocols to create a secure and private connection between a user’s device and the VPN server.
When a user connects to a VPN, their device establishes a secure and encrypted tunnel to the VPN server using a VPN protocol, such as OpenVPN or IKEv2. The tunnel protects the user’s internet traffic and data from being intercepted or monitored by third parties, such as ISPs or hackers.
Once the tunnel is established, the user’s device authenticates itself to the VPN server using a pre-shared key or other authentication methods. This ensures that only authorized devices can access the VPN server and use the VPN connection.
Once authenticated, the user’s device is assigned a virtual IP address from the VPN server’s pool of IP addresses. This virtual IP address is used to route the user’s internet traffic and data through the VPN server and out to the internet. The user’s device appears to have the VPN server’s IP address, rather than its own, which provides anonymity and allows the user to access online services and content that may be restricted or blocked based on their geographic location.
Overall, VPNs use encryption, tunneling, and authentication protocols to create a secure and private connection between a user’s device and the internet. This allows users to protect their online privacy and access online services and content that may be restricted in their location.
They don’t. “Hackers” don’t care about your IP. This is a lie sold by VPN providers to convince you that you need their product. The only real protection a VPN gives is that it keeps your internet provider from intercepting your traffic, and keeps the sites you visit from knowing where you are. It’s like using a courier to send packages because you don’t trust the postal service or the person you’re mailing. Now you’re trusting the courier instead.
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