It seems that Newscientist.com has discovered that wireless computing isn’t very safe. Wow. I’ve been telling everyone to secure your wireless router for years. Now the time has come that its not enough. This is a great read about what hackers can do even if you have your wireless router secured.
The truth is don’t get all panicky just yet. There is hope for the rest of you and a ton of resources out there. I personal like what cnet.com has setup with the classroom series. Go over to there Wireless Security online class and learn how you can help protect your data. Now I might go on and on and on about how dangerous the wireless world is, however i’m sitting here in bed with a pillow between me and the 1,000 degree laptop I’m blogging with. Keep those wires cut, but protect yourself with some knowledge at these classes: http://wireless-security.classes.cnet.com/
Well, I have always known this stuff was well…dangerous. Thats why I have my open let everyone in wireless router on a different network. A little segregation never hurt anyone.
Cameron
I keep my wireless secured, I just cannot afford to sabotage my computer. Sometimes I have my laptop with me in the car running – and I cannot believe how many there are unsecured. I have funny story to tell. I was running this R&D centre, and being separate unit we had to have some wireless system installed. I am not computer person so I may not explain this properly. One day we ran into some issues and IT guys came in and were checking the signal out. Believe or not they were able to tap into next door system, they saw accounting system and they even saw security cameras running in the warehouse. At least something was secured. The funny part was that they were assembling and selling computers or computer components. You should have seen their faces, when they saw their warehouse from somewhere else. I though I share that with some of you. Yeah you can get exposure to the world, but the exposure you don’t want others to see. Good thing was that we were the good guys. Anna
Cameron, Yeah that’s not a bad idea. Its funny in my apartment in NYC you can get onto so many peoples networks. Plus many people don’t change the default name of the access point, which is just as bad since all these routers have security issues and a hacker can run tools for that router on it.
Anna, that is funny. You reminded me about Security camera surfing. I have to make a post about that. There is a way that you can surf for security cameras that aren’t secure, I did this last year and found a warehouse in Japan, I was watching people work – it was weird.
If you do the post let me know. I would love to read it. I have a question, sometimes I need to access Internet, and I use the unsecure wireless to check my email – I find that some libraries in our area are unsecured. Am I at risk?
Yes and no. You should be careful on what you use, i never put credit card information when I use free-wireless. Its possible for people to grab the packets, its a lot of work but it is possible. Take a look at: http://wireless-security.classes.cnet.com/lesson-5/
there are someprograms out there that let you proxy through other computers to protect yourself, that is what they talk about with using a vpn.
The thing is, it does take someone a lot of time and work to do this and in a local library you might not find that someone may do this… But you should try to be safe about the risks.
Thanks for the advice. I am usually very careful what I use wireless for. Anything money related is all done on my secured network. On the other hand, any phone transaction are all done on the landline, not on cordless. We had once line crossing, and I heard my neighbour Peter ordering pizza – now I know what he likes. Take Care, Anna
and thanks for the link.
Great advice. Love the blog!