Hackers Find Wireless Networks Wide Open
The results were collected during a highly unorganized international wardriving day held in Red Deer, Alta.
Wardriving, sometimes called net stumbling, is a game that grew out of an earlier activity called "war dialing," which was popularized in the 1983 movie War Games. In that film, software was used to dial many phone numbers automatically, looking for lines that are answered by modems.
In wardriving, hackers drive around with computers outfitted with wireless connectors searching for signals based on a standard called 802.11b, which has become very popular in both offices and homes where computers are networked. Also called WiFi, the high-frequency networks have an effective range of about 30 metres but can extend much farther.
The aim of "wardriving" is to find a network that has not been encrypted, one that allows any passerby equipped with a device using the 802.11b standard to log in without effort.
Organizers said that of the 495 wireless networks their group found on its brief day-long tour through parts of Alberta, only 172 or 34 per cent - are encrypted. The remaining 66 per cent were unsecured.
In the Alberta version of "wardriving day," three vehicles cruised through Red Deer.
Between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., they found more than 300 wireless networks. Within the first 90 minutes they spent in Red Deer, they found about 40.
"Almost everything found within Red Deer was open," they said.
There were some initial errors, because a number of the machines found had been named "home" and wrere secured with encryption - probably field laptops used by a construction company.
Hackers in other cities searched for wireless networks the same day. In Baltimore, efforts were frustrated by heavy rain which can dampen the signals used by wireless devices.
Overall, there were good signs and bad signs... for example, all of the networks at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in were encrypted, but the University of Calgary had about nine or 10 wireless access points, of which, only three were encrypted.
You will find much more on this topic at WorldsLargestNetwork.com
| |||||||
 | |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
|
WorldsLargestNetwork.com
