Apparently, not being connected to the internet does not make one immune to security theft by hackers.
Every right-thinking person would be concerned about the security of their data and no one wants their private information to get into wrong hands: fraud, embarrassment, extortion, emotional battery, compromise are some of the obvious reasons one would want their private information to remain just that - private. So, when a Quora user posted a question on the subject, we were very much interested in the answers. From the myriad of response provided, it becomes obvious that even when your computer is not connected to the internet, there are other means (all of then unsavoury, some more extreme than others) that hackers can utilise to get into your computer or at the very least cause harm to your information. Continue scrolling for more information.
Question posted anonymously.
“When my computer is disconnected from the Internet, could a hacker still get into my computer?”
We have reproduced some of the best answers giver by the Quora community here in the hope that our readers might learn one or two things about how hackers might get their hands into private information stored on computers (including tablets, phones and other electronic storage devices).
#1: Answer by Franklin Veaux, using the Internet since it was called ARPAnet
Yes. A dedicated, well-funded state level actor or group of hackers could still get in if they were prepared to spend enough time and money to target you. The easiest way is simply to get into your house and gain access to your computer that way.
The easiest way is simply to get into your house and gain access to your computer that way. If they can’t break into your house, the next best way is to have you jack the computer for them, by tricking you. The easiest way to trick people is to send them an email with malware attached. Since your computer isn’t connected to the Internet, they have to trick you some other way.
One common way to trick people is to “accidentally” leave a USB memory stick lying in front of your house. It’s loaded with malware, and when you pick it up and put it in your computer, wham! You’ve just hacked yourself for them.
Protip: never plug a USB stick you find lying on the ground into any computer you care about.
If you’re too smart to do their work for them, then the options get more limited and more expensive.
Do you have a wireless printer? There are some sneaky things you can do by hacking the printer’s firmware. There are also some interesting things you can do by tampering with things like wireless cameras and other peripherals as a means of entry.
The fact that you’re not connected to the Internet doesn’t mean you aren’t connected to a local area network, and many device sites on your local network-smart TVs, that sort of thing-are Internet-facing. Some of them can offer a way in. A casino in Vegas recently got hacked when the hackers found and exploited a computerized automatic aquarium control system that, you guessed it, could be commanded over the Internet.
#2: Answer by Jeff Annis, Working in IT Hardware/Operating Systems for 15+ years
I think that Franklin Veaux, wrote a fairly compelling answer, however, I think that, from a semantics/functional standpoint, depending on the interpretation of your question, his answer may be a bit excessive. Note that I am not saying he is wrong, just that I interpret the question differently, perhaps because I have been using computers since before there were networks available to most of us.
My interpretation of the question is that it regards a stand-alone computer, not connected to any network/LAN/WAN. Implicit in this is that the computer is thus not connected to any Internet-facing devices. This limits any possible hacking to requiring physical access to the computer. For the sake of argument, we will assume that the location is secure enough to prevent this, though even if it is not, there are still ways to protect the data (such as disk encryption) from all but the elite hackers, and those who either remove the computer, or have a LOT of time to access it).The advice about not plugging USB drives into a computer you care about is sound. However, should you REALLY need to know what is on a mystery USB drive, running up-to-date anti-malware software on it immediately should give reasonable security for most home
The advice about not plugging USB drives into a computer you care about is sound. However, should you REALLY need to know what is on a mystery USB drive, running up-to-date anti-malware software on it immediately should give reasonable security for most home users. Doing this on a “sandbox” system (one with no real data available to it, and that can be completely deleted/re-imaged) afterword is even better.
Should there still be malware that somehow gets through, it is not going to be able to technically “hack” the computer in the sense that hack is most widely used (break into a computer to execute code for the purpose of stealing information or running instructions to control other networked devices). Again, we are talking of an isolated device here: how is the information going to get back to the hacker?
