"Typically normal users of products such as wireless routers dismiss any security concerns as only really being applicable to commercial concerns. After all who would be interested in a small local set-up of two maybe three computers? You may be surprised. There are many horror stories circulating about unsecured wireless networks & unfortunately there is grain of truth in most of them.
The most common form that a danger to a private network can take is known as variously as War-driving war-walking war-flying or war-chalking. This involves an unscrupulous person literally driving walking or even flying around in an attempt to find an unsecured wireless network. Once one is found a nearby wall is commonly chalked indicating to any other passer-by the presence of a ripe target. The name itself is taken from act of war-dialling a term coined by the film WarGames where random telephone numbers were dialled in the hope of finding a computer on the other end of the line.
With wireless networks proliferating it becoming more important than ever that sufficient security measures are put in place. And yet many people especially those new to the technology or computers in general are just not aware of the dangers of not properly securing a wireless network.
If a network is found then the potential consequences can range from fairly innocuous to the criminal. At the very lowest level a third-party can connect to the network & access the Internet connection from router. If the legitimate owner of the network is on a capped service this can consume a considerable chunk of their bandwidth leading to extra charges being levied for resources which they never realised were being used. Of far more consequence are some of the uses to which this stolen bandwidth could be put. In a worst case example a paedophile cruising around the area could spot the chalk marking & connect to the compromised network. Without the knowledge of the network owners they could connect to any manner of illegal sites with no record of their passing traceable to them. Because the trail would stop cold at the door of the person who has provided them with the free access.
Too few people enable this basic protection or are even aware it exists. However in some regards protecting your network can be as essential as your childhood inoculation against tetanus. So please take just a few minutes of your time to configure your WEP encryption & to help protect yourself.
Of course this is very worst-case example & as such very unlikely. Even in today s climate of moral decrepitude this sort of occurrence would we hope be extraordinarily rare. But hopefully it will help drive home the point that securing your network should be taken very seriously indeed. But what can you do to protect yourself?
I would recommend that all wireless networks should make use of the WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption option which comes as standard with almost all routers & base stations. Although turned off by default this feature is absolutely essential. Utilising either 64-bit encryption which creates a 64bit encryption based on a 40-bit key with a 24-bit initialisation vector or 128-bit encryption which makes use of a 104-bit key with a 24-bit initialisation vector a secure password is created. This password should only be given to known & trusted wireless devices blocking access to any interloper. This although not secure against dedicated crackers provides a more than adequate protection to dissuade the nosy or the vast majority of war-drivers.
Wireless Router: http://www.router-wireless.info
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