July 29, 2003

WiFi Is Open, Free and Vulnerable to Hackers

My spin: WiFi is great and easy to setup and use. But if hackers can get into your office network more easily than do consider hiring a security consultant to harden your wireless network.

Washington Post News Clip: Safeguarding Wireless Networks Too Much Trouble for Many Users

Here's how Army Lt. Col. Clifton H. Poole, who teaches classes on wireless security at the National Defense University, gets his kicks on I-66:

Several times a month, Poole turns on a laptop computer in his car as he commutes between his Reston home and the university campus at Fort McNair in Southwest Washington. As he drives, a software program records the number of "hot spots," areas where wireless transmitters allow Internet access over the air.

The results, Poole says, scare him.

After nearly two years of monitoring the same 23-mile route, Poole has watched the number of hot spots boom, as the technology known as WiFi has become the latest Big Internet Thing. Setting up a home or business wireless network gives people freedom to jump onto the Internet without their computers being tethered to cables.

WiFi, short for wireless fidelity, is becoming so popular that increasing numbers of airports, coffee houses, bars and other retailers offer public hot spots to attract laptop-toting customers who want to sit and surf. (full story)

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