The IP address is a term referring to the identity of your device on the internet. In other words, your device is encrypted and named after a series of numbers by your internet service provider
More importantly, this series of numbers makes it possible for you to be tracked by any tech-savvy organization or individual such as governments, criminal organizations, or hackers who might use your IP address for multiple purposes.
So the question “if someone has my IP address what can they do?” is a question that many people want to know the answer.
In addition to identifying the information of the device you are using, your IP address also allows others to detect your physical location and information such as:
- What is your country?
- Which city do you live in?
- The IP code of the network device you are using.
- What is your ZIP code?
How Does Someone Else Get Your IP Address?
1. Borrow Your Mobile Phone Or Smart Device.
If someone else has a chance to use your device, they can investigate your IP address by simply visiting a website like findmyip.com. Your IP address will appear immediately after a few basic steps.
2. Attack The Wifi Device You Are Using
By tapping on the network devices that you connect. Strangers can try to join your intranet and easily see the IP address of each connected device, including your device
3. Stealing Ip Address With Malicious Email
It could be stolen from your email. You may not have known: Many servers today still allow to display the email sender’s IP address. The hackers’ job is to send you malicious code containing some curious images into your email. If you open it, the sender will notify you that you have read it and your IP address.
There are even a lot of supporting software to create such malicious code on the internet. With just a few basic searches, you will be able to create your own.
4. It Also Has Many Different Ways for Others to See Your IP Address.
- Visible from a website’s server. When you visit a website, that website’s server stores your IP address, which means website owners can find your device’s address if desired.
Of course, the purpose of doing this is not necessarily bad. They might just be trying to check where their content’s breadth has gone or check for some security bug. - Someone could see your IP address from discussion forums on the internet. When you contribute content on forums in learning areas, the administrators of these forums will manage you by IP address. They are also relying on it to embargo you if you break their rules.
- It is also possible to discover your IP address from your comments on the website. When you make a comment on any website, your IP address will appear on that website’s server. Similar to the above, your administrator can also see you.
- It may sound unbelievable, but each link you click on social networks can contain malicious code that can get your IP address out.
- The same goes for messaging apps. The person who messaged you, of course, cannot see your IP address. However, when you accidentally click on the links here, your IP address is also easily visible.
- If the authorities track you on cyberspace, your IP address is not difficult to retrieve and tracked.
If Someone Has My IP Address What Can They Do?
1) Use Your Ip To Detect Your Location
Your IP address can tell other people your exact address. However, in most cases, the addresses are not specific. It is usually only possible to find the city where you live.
However, it is still quite dangerous to reveal the IP address to hackers and professional criminal organizations. These people can be combined with many other essential data to identify you more precisely.
2) Use Your Ip To Steal Data In Your Device
If a hacker knows your IP address, they may attempt to connect to your device using various encryption routes. Once successful, they will gain control of the device and all the important information on your devices such as phone contacts, bank accounts, social media accounts, etc.
3) You Can Be Impersonated If You Reveal Your Ip Address
Your IP address is always stored on the server of your internet service provider. If they know your social networking account name, some guys may contact your provider to impersonate you. Once successful, they will gain access to your personal account. This usually happens with a lot of famous celebrity Facebook accounts over the years.
4) Block You From Accessing Websites
Many websites may use your IP address to block your ability to access their systems. There are many instances where these websites could block you in a way like this.
You may have violated their policies and terms. You may also be blacklisted where they impose a mass embargo due to a cybersecurity threat, or you may also be in an embargoed agency area.
Similarly, mobile apps or games’admin also can ban you from their platform
5) Produce A Dos Attack
Knowing your IP address can also help some hackers to perform DosS attacks on your device. These attacks will paralyze your entire device system. You may not be able to access the internet in any way, and data may be stolen.
However, it takes a lot of time and effort to do so, so it is mostly only done with large organizations such as governments or large corporations.
6) Steal Personal Data And Sell It To Third Parties
Personal information hacked using your IP address will likely be sold to multiple users of data miners or even to other criminal organizations. This is quite dangerous and has many potential risks for yourself.
How to Cover Your Actual IP Address?
1. Use A Vpn Account
First, you need to know about the VPN account’s pros:
- Cover your IP address
- Encrypt your browsing information with the websites you visit.
- unblock websites blocking you
When you connect to the VPN, the VPN provider will give you a virtual IP address. While your real IP address will be sealed and hidden, all other information will be personalized and falsified to connect to the mentioned virtual IP address.
2. Use The Tor Network
TOR, also known as Onion Router, is a free application that allows you to completely anonymize the web site’s administrator with a mechanism similar to a VPN network.
However, it also has many disadvantages, such as very slow page loading speed. Due to the browser’s anonymity, it is home to many criminal organizations around the world. So if you use Tor, you could be held accountable.
3. Transition To Using Mobile Data
Switching to 3G or 4G internet by telecom networks is also a useful solution.
The mechanism of the mobile network is natural IP anonymity. Specifically, every time you surf the web with your mobile network, you will be given different IP addresses from that carrier. So you won’t have to worry about exposing your IP-only to the outside anymore.
Conclusion
In short, knowing your IP address issues will be of great help in keeping your InformationInformation secure. Our articles are for informational and educational purposes only. We do not encourage any criminal ploy.
Hopefully, after reading the article, readers will find their own answer to the question “If Someone Has My Ip Address, What Can They Do?”
