Which is more secure : 4G or WiFi?

Question

Which is more secure, a 4G network or a router with wpa2 encryption secured a good long password?

Answer 1

Cellular signals travel over greater distances than WiFi signals, so potentially more people could be monitoring cellular signals if they have the right equipment.



Unless you are on an old style analogue network, then the cellular signal is encrypted. 3G and 4G signals use digital networks, so they are encrypted. The cellular device will use a number of local towers depending upon how good the signal is to each tower. The actual signal will jump from tower to tower probably several times per second, although this does not help protect signals going from the device to the network as the device is in a single location. The signals also jump backwards and forwards between different channels in the cellular band. All this helps the phone or device maintain a reasonable connection with the network even if certain mast and frequency combination hit a null spot as far as the wireless signal is concerned.



WiFi is used over a much smaller radius from the base station (the router). With WPA2 (personal) encryption and a good long obscure pass phrase using numbers, letters and punctuation then the network is reasonably secure.



Both WiFi and Cellular networks require specialist equipment and software to hack in to. With a powerful super-computer it will normally take many months to hack in to either network successfully. If your router offers WPS setup for connecting devices, then this should be disabled. WPS has a known flaw that allows hackers on to the network fairly quickly while WPS is active.



Unless you are doing something illicit or top secret, then you should not need to worry about the relative security offered by WiFi or Cellular connections.



I hope this helps.

Answer 2

To the best of my knowledge the over the air signal with 4G is not encrypted. However, as Jeff said the average hacker isn't going to have a 4G radio to intercept the signal. Regardless, even if 4G was encrypted (or wifi) it's only encrypted between the user and the "head end" device. After your data leaves the head end device its no longer encrypted. You need end to end encryption to be truly secure, in that case it doesn't matter what the transmission medium is. End to end security = IPSec or SSL.

Answer 3

Technically the WiFi is more secure, but it's easily hacked given enough time.



It's more likely that someone will break into wifi if they really wanted than it is to access your 4G connection. The only reason is that your 4G connection will automatically connect to the nearest tower. People don't really go around carrying 4G radios to spoof your nearest tower and act as a man in the middle (but they could and your device is already vulnerable).



It's probably best to consider both as equally insecure and therefore you should instead use end to end encryption when doing something that requires security.

Answer 4

Wifi is more secure than 4G.

Answer 5

I think WiFi is more secure .

Answer 6

They are not interchangeble.