Home > Technobuddy > Archives > 2007 > July > 19 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWould you like some ID theft with your coffee?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re using a wireless hotspot - at a coffee shop, hotel or where ever - you’re virtually hanging a sign around your neck saying - hack me.
The article I link here says it all - wireless hotspots are the single most dangerous wireless technology.
I can remember sitting in a coffee shop while a security expert showed me e-mails and passwords rolling past on his computer screen. But you sure don’t have to be an expert to do what he did - the software is available for free on the Net. (And no, there won’t be links to the stuff). But here’s the frightening thing. I am not letting the cat out of the bag on this stuff. The people interested in this sort of thing know all about it and many of them routinely hack into wireless connections like this - either for fun or profit.
And the problem is deeper than just being able to hack into a legitimate access point. It’s also easy to set up a second access point that looks like the real thing. You can even do that from a car outside a coffee shop. Even to an expert user, the fake hot spot looks just fine.
The linked article may get a bit too technical for some but it does go into some possible solutions.
However the real solution - for the meantime - is to avoid using wireless hotspots.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: General
Comments