81.5.207.236 - that is, or at least was, at the time of writing this post, my IP address. No, I’m not going to get hacked, doxxed, or anything else. Keep reading to find out why.

On the internet it seems to be a common thing for people to “threaten” each other by claiming that they have the other person’s IP address - and as a professional cybersecurity engineer of multiple years now, that never fails to entertain me. The entire “threat” behind having someone’s IP address is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what an IP address actually is, and what it allows people to do.

Let’s start at the beginning#

An IP address is a unique address that identifies your home network in the entirety of the internet, and it’s a fundamental concept for the internet to work the way it does. Unless you’re in a very particular environment - which you almost certainly aren’t if you’re reading this - your IP address is NOT a unique address of your PC or phone (read up about NAT - Network Address Translation if you’re interested in more details). Every device that’s connected to the internet needs an IP address - not just your router that connects your computer and phone, but also the servers that run the websites you visit, the multiplayer games you play, etc. Everything has an IP address.

When you type the address of any website into your browser, the very first thing it does is finding the IP address associated with the URL that you typed. (In reality this is a somewhat layered process, but this generally holds true. If you’re curious about more details, look into DNS!) When you type google.com, your browser doesn’t connect you to that address directly - it connects you to the IP that’s associated with that name.

But when you connect to a server on the internet, it also needs to be able to send data back to your machine! And guess what? In order to do that, it knows your IP! Literally every single website you visit on the internet sees your IP every single time you visit it - because it’s necessary from a technical standpoint.

So what can someone do with my IP?#

The truth is - not a whole lot, particularly if you haven’t messed around with the default settings of your router. 99% of home routers completely block all connection attempts from “the outside world” by default, so anyone who tries to actually break into your home network will very quickly be running into a brick (fire)wall.

But I can be DDoS’d!#

Technically there’s some truth to this. The way a DDoS attack works is by sending a ridiculous amount of data to a specific device on the internet to overwhelm it and shut it down - and that can theoretically happen if an attacker knows your IP address. However! It is highly unlikely for any random person to have the technical means to actually execute an attack that would actually take you offline. And here’s a tip - if you, against all chances, actually do become victim of such an attack - just turn your router off and on again. In most cases this will actually change your IP.

But they can find my home address!#

No, that’s simply not true. Because of the way IP addresses are assigned it is possible to find the country of the device the IP address is assigned to, and in some cases the nearest large city, but it is completely impossible to derive an actual, full home address from just your IP address. It’s significantly more likely that someone would find the area you live in through your social media posts.

Final thoughts#

Your IP address is not a secret, and it’s not a weapon. Every site you visit sees it. Every game server you join sees it. And it’s not enough, by itself, to hack you, dox you, or shut your life down. Next time someone tries to scare you by saying “I have your IP” — relax. Now you know what that really means, and more importantly, what it doesn’t.