What a hacker can and cannot do with your IP address

OPA WIRE, Nov 8 (OPA) — IP addresses function primarily to route data traffic to and from websites, servers, and online games. Most home routers allow multiple connected devices to share a single public IPv4 address. Meanwhile, newer IPv6 architecture can assign distinct, public-facing addresses to individual devices across a network.

While an IP lookup reveals an internet service provider and approximate geographic region, it does not grant direct access to user files. In a notable 2016 legal case, a Kansas family sued MaxMind after its geolocation database incorrectly mapped roughly 650 million unrelated IP addresses to their farm, triggering repeated law enforcement visits.

The primary threat associated with exposed IP addresses remains distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks. These incidents flood a target with high volumes of traffic from multiple sources, potentially disrupting video calls, gaming sessions, or entire household internet connections. Such attacks forced game developers to adopt Steam networking to obscure player IP addresses following incidents like a 2021 Twitch stream disruption involving xQc and 'Crab Game.'

Security risks escalate when routers feature misconfigured firewalls or exposed ports. In October 2026, Microsoft disclosed CVE-2026-105016, a critical vulnerability in its QUIC implementation that could allow specially crafted IPv6 traffic to execute code in affected .NET applications. Experts recommend verifying router firewall settings for both IPv4 and IPv6, eliminating unnecessary remote-access rules, and applying security updates promptly rather than disabling protocols entirely.