Serious Discussion How was my "5G on-the-go hotspot" network device hacked?

[Rov123]

This may sound very tinhat foil to the majority of people, but I have been a victim of a sophisticated attack for a while now to my family and home network and devices. I got sick of it all, so I decided to buy a brand new laptop and a brand new on-the-go 5G hotspot network device. I went to a coffee shop with them to use, and within half an hour to an hour, the network device was attacked immediately. I looked at the network device alerts, and multiple times, it said "A new wifi device has joined the network", I checked and no devices were shown, but it kept saying and spamming that for almost 5 minutes straight. Only my laptop was connected to it, and there weren't any connection drops, so I do not know why it kept spamming those messages.

If this was a real attack, and my network device was truly hacked, how is it possible? Because the hacker is not near me locally I believe, they are from across the world. How did they manage to pinpoint and attack me while I was using an isolated device and network? Does this sound plausible? If we look at the bigger picture, I could be a random person using a random laptop and a network, but they manage to find me.

The device is called "Inseego MiFi X PRO". The device literally was advertised "Comprehensive security measures, including advanced encryption, guest wifi network, hacker prevention, SASE capabilities, and VPN/ZTNA support. Guarantee safe and secure connectivity to your enterprise network, even for remote workers accessing it from anywhere in the world." And it was hacked immediately.

 

[Bot]

It's unlikely that your 5G hotspot was brute-forced, especially if you're using a strong password. Your device might be experiencing a software glitch or a misconfiguration. However, it's always possible that a sophisticated attacker could exploit a vulnerability in the device or the network. It's not that 5G is inherently unsecured, but no technology is completely immune to attacks. I recommend updating your device's firmware, changing your password, and contacting Inseego's support for further assistance.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

This may sound very tinhat foil to the majority of people, but I have been a victim of a sophisticated attack for a while now to my family and home network and devices. I got sick of it all, so I decided to buy a brand new laptop and a brand new on-the-go 5G hotspot network device. I went to a coffee shop with them to use, and within half an hour to an hour, the network device was attacked immediately. I looked at the network device alerts, and multiple times, it said "A new wifi device has joined the network", I checked and no devices were shown, but it kept saying and spamming that for almost 5 minutes straight. Only my laptop was connected to it, and there weren't any connection drops, so I do not know why it kept spamming those messages.

If this was a real attack, and my network device was truly hacked, how is it possible? Because the hacker is not near me locally I believe, they are from across the world. How did they manage to pinpoint and attack me while I was using an isolated device and network? Does this sound plausible? If we look at the bigger picture, I could be a random person using a random laptop and a network, but they manage to find me.

The device is called "Inseego MiFi X PRO". The device literally was advertised "Comprehensive security measures, including advanced encryption, guest wifi network, hacker prevention, SASE capabilities, and VPN/ZTNA support. Guarantee safe and secure connectivity to your enterprise network, even for remote workers accessing it from anywhere in the world." And it was hacked immediately.

If you didn't install a certificate then all ssl traffic is encrypted
About that device it's either the device you used for the hotspot or a local device if you didn't set the firewall settings to public as setting as public should restrict at least some connections made by local devices




You can check the ssl certificate of the site your visiting and see if it was replaced by a malicious actor if not then you're likely safe at least for ssl traffic


Btw you can use a vpn to encrypt your traffic although unnecessary or add a firewall like comodo, zone alarm, Symantec but again unnecessary
As windows firewall treating the network as public and a secure DNS should be more then enough

 

[Rov123]

If you didn't install a certificate then all ssl traffic is encrypted
About that device it's either the device you used for the hotspot or a local device if you didn't set the firewall settings to public as setting as public should restrict at least some connections made by local devices




You can check the ssl certificate of the site your visiting and see if it was replaced by a malicious actor if not then you're likely safe at least for ssl traffic


Btw you can use a vpn to encrypt your traffic although unnecessary or add a firewall like comodo, zone alarm, Symantec but again unnecessary
As windows firewall treating the network as public and a secure DNS should be more then enough

What I'm most concerned about is whether if they are able to install malware or spyware on my laptop once they gain entry to the network, because it's been the case for my family and home devices where they installed RAT and more on my windows PC after hacking into my home network. So seeing those notifications of them entering my new hotspot device raise those concerns. It's much more alarming than them simply sniffing my traffics.

 

[Victor M]

Why did you go to a coffee shop to test your new equiptment? Hackers like coffee shops.Lots of possible victims.

What security features are on that Inseego ? Maybe someone was trying to connect to your hotspot and the device kicked them out. Hence you see no other connected devices.

Do u have an iphone? On an iphone you can connect to your PC via usb cable, turn on iphone's hotspot and select usb, to provide internet. Then tell iphone that you trust the connected computer. A wired connection is safer - no possibility of outside contact.

On an android it is called usb tethering.