Your Local Secure WPA2 Wi-Fi Network Has Been Hit With KRACK

After WannaCry, KRACK could cause serious problems in the digital world, if exploited by hackers.

All Wi-Fi stations are under threat right now. (Photo: The Quint)

If you’re wondering what the headline means, then in simple words, you need to know that all ways of accessing the internet via a secured WiFi router has been breached.

Global researchers have discovered an alarming weakness with our existing WiFi protocols, leaving all of us prone to hackers stealing data. They have come across an exploit called ‘KRACK’, which enables anyone to eavesdrop and access traffic details transmitted between the computer and the WiFi devices.

Researches via a report published on Monday, 16 October, on krackattack.com, highlights that KRACK – Key Reinstallation Attack – can be used to read information which was earlier assumed to be safely encrypted. With the exploit, hackers can grab hold of sensitive information like credit card numbers, messages, and even photos.

It doesn’t matter which device or operating system you’re hooked on to, as the report confirms that any device with WiFi support is now vulnerable.

During our initial research, we discovered ourselves that Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek, Linksys, and others, are all affected by some variant of the attack.

<a href="https://www.krackattacks.com/">Krackattack.com</a>

The attack works against all modern protected WiFi networks.

The fact that WPA2 security protocol, which is the most secured form of accessing internet via WiFi, has been breached, does paint a worrying picture for millions of users and business entities across the globe.

But, as most exploits reported recently, the impact of KRACK can be minimised by updating to the latest security update, which is likely to be rolled out by OEMs as we speak. Changing passwords won’t help your cause, but everyone needs to make sure their router firmware is up-to-date.

In addition to devices and operating system being vulnerable, they’ve also pointed out that Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), which is seen as the mode to access secure websites on the internet, has not been spared either.

Luckily, no major hacking incidents have been reported as of now, but don’t count that out just yet. The news of KRACK is definitely as big as WannaCry, which had hit Windows systems earlier this year.

We’ll keep a close eye on KRACK and its development. Stay tuned for more.

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