Are you wireless? Can I spy on you?
Wireless internet connectivity is an essential part of many people's lives. Chances are if you have a laptop, you are running a wireless connection. It's important to know that if you are running wireless, you better encrypt your connection.
With the right tools, anyone can see exactly what goes on within your home, jump on your connection, and even download your files! Unless... you take the steps to encrypt your connection.
Personally, I do ride around from time to time to see how many people encrypt their wireless connection. The numbers are staggering. Most people don't. What exactly does this mean? Without encrypting the following can happen:
That's just a sample of what can be done. So, what can you do to protect yourself? TURN ON ENCRYPTION!!! Your wireless access point / router will usually support two types of encryption WEP and WPA. Start by trying to use WPA. It's hard to crack if you select a good key. WEP is ok too, but if a hacker captures enough of your encrypted packets, it still is possible to crack the key over time. It is going to take quite a bit of time though.
You'll need to setup the encryption in both the wireless access point / router and the wireless network adapter within your laptop. When you select a key (password), choose something challenging. Keys should include upper case characters, lower case characters, and numbers. For example, 2Late4Love would be a good key.
Protect yourself. People drive around in their cars looking for open access points. This is act is known as wardriving. They have an external antenna that will easily penetrate into your home and violate your network. If you don't encrypt, you should be worried. I've only brought this up to help because I know for a fact people are not taking to time to protect themselves.
If you need any help, drop me a line and I'll try and do my best to help you secure your internet connection.
Also keep in mind to be careful what you do when you go to a hotel with free wireless internet. Last week we stayed at a Ramada Inn that offered free internet. Nothing was encrypted! If you check your email at some place like this, use web mail and make sure it's a secure connection. The prefix should be https://. The s in https indicates that you are indeed visiting a secure web site and the info can't be seen by others.
Be safe. Be smart.
With the right tools, anyone can see exactly what goes on within your home, jump on your connection, and even download your files! Unless... you take the steps to encrypt your connection.
Personally, I do ride around from time to time to see how many people encrypt their wireless connection. The numbers are staggering. Most people don't. What exactly does this mean? Without encrypting the following can happen:
- I can see all your internet activity unless you visit a secure site. (https)
- I see read your email. I can see your username and password as it checks it. Once I have this info, I could change it on you if I wanted to.
- If you share files on your network, I'll have access to all your private files. I can download them if I want to. Even worse, I can delete them.
- I can monitor all your Instant Messaging chatting with other people.
- I can download illegal music, tv shows, and movies from peer-to-peer networks without worrying about getting caught because I'm on your network connection.
That's just a sample of what can be done. So, what can you do to protect yourself? TURN ON ENCRYPTION!!! Your wireless access point / router will usually support two types of encryption WEP and WPA. Start by trying to use WPA. It's hard to crack if you select a good key. WEP is ok too, but if a hacker captures enough of your encrypted packets, it still is possible to crack the key over time. It is going to take quite a bit of time though.
You'll need to setup the encryption in both the wireless access point / router and the wireless network adapter within your laptop. When you select a key (password), choose something challenging. Keys should include upper case characters, lower case characters, and numbers. For example, 2Late4Love would be a good key.
Protect yourself. People drive around in their cars looking for open access points. This is act is known as wardriving. They have an external antenna that will easily penetrate into your home and violate your network. If you don't encrypt, you should be worried. I've only brought this up to help because I know for a fact people are not taking to time to protect themselves.
If you need any help, drop me a line and I'll try and do my best to help you secure your internet connection.
Also keep in mind to be careful what you do when you go to a hotel with free wireless internet. Last week we stayed at a Ramada Inn that offered free internet. Nothing was encrypted! If you check your email at some place like this, use web mail and make sure it's a secure connection. The prefix should be https://. The s in https indicates that you are indeed visiting a secure web site and the info can't be seen by others.
Be safe. Be smart.
posted by Craig at 9:54 PM
1 Comments:
You should write for a magazine, dude. :)
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