Wireless Security

Is your Wireless Broadband letting in hackers?
A wireless network allows you to access broadband from more than one computer at a time, and from anywhere in your house.
That can be very convenient. But it can also be convenient for drive-by hackers. These hackers, who sometimes call themselves 'war drivers', carry a laptop computer in their car, and when they get a radio signal from an unprotected network, they can park their car and join the network.

What do these hackers want from your wireless network?
Some of them just want to be able to read their emails and surf the Internet - using someone else's broadband probably adds a little spice. Relatively harmless, you might think, but can you really trust them not to read your emails as well?
At the other extreme are those who want to engage in criminal activities, and who would prefer the police to come knocking at your door rather than their own door.

Some other things they might do:
  • Stealing your identity, or maybe just your credit card details.
  • Putting viruses on your computer, including backdoor programs which allow them to control your computer.
  • Disabling your antivirus and other protection.
War drivers are helpful people - they may add you to a map of available wireless access points, to make it even easier for others to find you. See these websites:
www.wigle.net - they recently celebrated reaching the 10 million mark - 10 million networks across the world, for which they can give the exact GPS co-ordinates.
www.wifimaps.com - only covers the USA at the moment, but is very detailed indeed - you can see all the wireless networks in a street, with indicators showing how easy they are to hack into.

If you think that the danger is not real, try looking for
war-driving +hacking
on your favourite search engine.

Don't panic too much - we can keep hackers out for about £30.