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I'd like to ask for help, maybe steps on what to do, when being targeted by an "Evil Twin" attack.
My question is related to this: SSID with very similar name, is this an attempt of hacking? But I'm quite certain it is an attack in my case, and I rather need countermeasures, not just making certain on the fact that it is an attack.
I would also like to point out that I'm not a security/network professional, although I'm a software developer student. I merely noticed what is happening because I often read articles on various interesting IT topics.
The story:
About a month ago, I noticed a WiFi network with the exact same name as mine (Paternoszter), appearing on my laptop WiFi list when I'm home. It is an open network, unlike mine, which is password protected (only).
For the first few days I paid not much attention other than making sure I'm connecting to my own network, but then my network started "disconnecting" and reconnecting to the "fake" one, this is when I turned off my WiFi, and also my router.
At this point I reported the incident to the authorities, filled the forms, sent screenshots and all they asked for. I got a promise that "they will look into it". I used my computer only on LAN for a week after, but the duplicate network still persists. (It is there even when I unplug my router from electricity)
A month passed, nothing has changed, but I'm too afraid to use my own WiFi network. It is annoying because I have zero experience with things like this, I used 3 tutorials just to do my router settings. I don't know what I could do.
Are there any further steps a beginner like me take? I had hoped that they would give up by now.
UPDATE (2017.06.20.): Three days after this post the "twin" disappeared, but as I had no idea why, I haven't yet posted anything. It turned out authorities have looked into it, but I was told that they cannot tell me anything during the investigation. I want to hereby thank all the comments, it helped me calm my nerves!
What OS are you using? Does changing the name help? (especially one that's hard to type,) Does the fake network provide any sort of Internet access? – user1686 – 2017-06-12T09:55:23.927
1Win10, I have tried changing "Paternoszter" to "Paternoszter2", in the first 3 days, but the fake was changed withing a few hours, so I changed it back. (fake changed back too) I was too afraid to even let my computer connect to the fake access, so I don't know if it provides internet or not. – Dragonturtle – 2017-06-12T09:58:44.650
Don't use WiFi. There isn't much you can do so just don't use WiFi. Locating the evil twin and shutting it down would be the solution. – Seth – 2017-06-12T10:34:09.313
my network started "disconnecting" and reconnecting to the "fake" one That is worrisome. Your computer should not connect to an open network unless you asked it do. What operating system is this? – David Schwartz – 2017-06-15T04:38:54.717