WiFi Security

[rasmasyean]

What are some of the negatives of having an Open AP, or even a WEP AP?
What can someone do if they connect / hack into your “home” network?

[Planet]

The list of exploits on an unsecured network are extensive... MIM (Man in the Middle attack) allowing someone to commit a crime from your network, Dos (Denial of Service attack), not to mention a free ride on your network. If some one hops on a wireless access point, they are essentially at the heart of the internal network. That means they're behind the firewall and have access to everything that legitimate users can see.

Enabling WEP just requires the wood-be hacker to produce a mere key to connect. You can also check out a product by Team-F1 (http://www.teamf1.com/products/ap/asap_highlights.htm) to help secure your AP's.

[rasmasyean]

The list of exploits on an unsecured network are extensive... MIM (Man in the Middle attack) allowing someone to commit a crime from your network, Dos (Denial of Service attack), not to mention a free ride on your network. If some one hops on a wireless access point, they are essentially at the heart of the internal network. That means they're behind the firewall and have access to everything that legitimate users can see.

Enabling WEP just requires the wood-be hacker to produce a mere key to connect. You can also check out a product by Team-F1 (http://www.teamf1.com/products/ap/asap_highlights.htm) to help secure your AP's.

So what does that mean? Like they can reroute you to a "fake banking site" that mimics the real one and steal your information?

DOS is when they keep requesting pages from a site right? Why would they set up a computer on a random wireless network to do this to a company's website? Seems kind of inefficient.

If you put things into a shared folder, then I suppose a hacker can get access to it. If not, then what else can they do in your network?

[Planet]

This will explain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_security#Man-in-the-middle_attacks) the various attacks in detail. In short, an unsecured wifi network renders everything on that network open to public access.

[golfnut]

Another reason to keep your network secure is the RIAA.

If someone uses your unsecured wireless network to download illegal songs, you may end up with a subpoena to pay thousands in royalties for every song downloaded.

Greg

[rasmasyean]

Huh? That doesn't sound like something too plausible.
What about StarBucks when ppl connect to their network and such?
What about the library?
And universities?


So the RIAA can sue everyone then! :p
I'll only believe that can happen if I see a case.

[golfnut]

At Starbucks you have to register for access and they could easily identify someone downloading illegal music if need be. Same for Universities.

It is very plausible and there was an incident where the defendant won her case against the RIAA because she had a open wireless network and the RIAA could not prove that the music was actually downloaded to her computer.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/03/industry_drops_filesharing_case/

There have also been cases of folks being arrested for transferring explicit pictures only to find out that someone else had done this over an open wireless network.

Your ISP may block your Internet connection because someone with a virus is using your open wireless network to send spam.

One of my WiFi hotel customer received an email through the ISP from the US Defense department because someone attempted to hack into their servers. This person wasn't a guest.

It's been suggested that terrorist may use open networks for communications to avoid being tracked.

I believe there are laws now that makes people partially liable for not protecting their network from situations like these.

Bottom line is that there are many reasons for ensuring your network is protected.

Greg

[rasmasyean]

That case looks like the RIAA was trying get someone harrassed to make a court case for "closing" all open networks and using media to "headline scare" ppl sharing music. It's more like a media circus attempt than something they really hope to get a "bust" out of. The partial liability thing is not going to happen.

There are numerous cafe's where you can sit across the street to tap into, as well as parks that have WiFi. My cousin used to go park near a university to download World of Warcraft patches because he was only able to get dial-up where he lived. Walk arround in a major city and you'll get ample coverage from home networks. Some cell phones now are capable of transforming into an "ad-hoc hotspot" with software.

You can even turn your laptop with aircard into a hotspot.

Tell you the truth, I don't really see how they are going to make ppl partially liable. And if they did, it would stunt commerce in a sense so that goes against the interest of municipalities as well.