What is Wireshark? The Free Network Sniffing Tool | UpGuard

This article provides an educational overview of Wireshark as a packet sniffer and network protocol analyzer, explains relevant OSI layers and common protocols, outlines legitimate use cases and risks (including malicious reconnaissance), and lists practical defenses such as updated antivirus, strong encryption (e.g., AES), VPNs, disabling UPnP, avoiding public Wi‑Fi, and vendor patching to reduce sniffing-related threats.