Are Our Neighbors Hijacking Our Wi-Fi? A Curious Case of Spoofing

In the realm of cybersecurity, strange occurrences are par for the course, but some situations can leave even the most seasoned professionals scratching their heads. Recently, a baffling problem arose while staying at my in-laws’ residence in the United Kingdom, prompting me to seek insights from the wider community on this perplexing issue.

My in-laws are subscribers of Virgin Media and utilize a Hub 3 router. With their Wi-Fi details set to default—an SSID featuring “VM” followed by numerical digits and a WPA2 password printed on a sticker—I assumed the setup was standard. However, when the household expanded recently, the Hub struggled to handle the volume of connections. To address this, I decided to upgrade to a high-quality router and switch the Hub into modem mode.

As I began modifying the network setup, I noticed that even when the Virgin router was powered off, my phone still detected a strong Wi-Fi signal emanating from it. Intrigued, I employed a Wi-Fi analyzer app to investigate and discovered an unexpected access point in the back of the house, particularly strong in my in-laws’ bedroom. Yet, neither the family nor I could find any additional access point on the premises.

Suspicion arose that the source of this signal was actually coming from the neighboring property. A subsequent scan revealed that the network belonged to a TalkTalk connection—not Virgin Media. To add to the mystery, the TalkTalk SSID was somehow transmitting their Wi-Fi credentials as if they were our own.

Delving further, I used a WHOIS lookup on my public IP, which confirmed my connection was linked to TalkTalk. This raises serious questions: How did this happen? Are we inadvertently sharing credentials?

The Theories Unfold

After some thought, I developed two possible theories to explain the situation:

Innocent Explanation:
1. A previous tenant in the adjacent property may have discovered my in-laws’ Wi-Fi credentials—perhaps through a casual glance or less-than-scrupulous methods.
2. Once acquired, these credentials were shared with subsequent tenants, who may not have been aware they were using someone else’s connection.
3. Over time, as residents moved in and out, the original owners of the credentials departed, leaving the current occupants under the impression they were using their own service.
4. Eventually, the landlord could have established a legitimate TalkTalk connection and, without