Secure your wireless network! (threats to Biden, child porn sent by neighbor)

[Quantum]

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=15&sid=1983642


Cyberthreat of Joe Biden leads to arrest

June 18, 2010 - 7:32am

* It's been said "good fences make for good neighbors." Now good firewalls make for better neighbors. Barry Ardolf, 45, of Minneapolis has been accused of using his neighbor's Wi-Fi network to send threatening emails to vice president Joseph Biden. The NewNewInternet reports if that weren't enough, Ardolf also sent child pornography to his neighbor's coworkers using a fake email account he set up in his neighbor's name. Ardolf has turned down a plea deal and now faces a minimum of seven years in federal prison on charges of aggravated identity theft and making threats to the life of the President of the United States and his successors.

[zusn]

Unfortunately, there's not such thing as Wi-Fi security. Any Wi-Fi network can be easily cracked, some times it's more time consuming. If anyone is really worried, do not set up wireless.

[Cebu_4_2]

My wireless is either poor or I have it setup good. We get excellent reception except upstairs, then you need to put the antenna back on the router. With the antenna on you can't get a signal good enough until you are inside the garage (in a vehicle). On foot outside it's not good enough unless windows are open. My windows have that energy saving film built into them and I assume this must be what helps.

[Quantum]

Unfortunately, there's not such thing as Wi-Fi security. Any Wi-Fi network can be easily cracked, some times it's more time consuming. If anyone is really worried, do not set up wireless.


In essence, what you say is true. But even establishing a network password neutralizes 95% of troublemakers.

[zusn]

Unfortunately, there's not such thing as Wi-Fi security. Any Wi-Fi network can be easily cracked, some times it's more time consuming. If anyone is really worried, do not set up wireless.


In essence, what you say is true. But even establishing a network password neutralizes 95% of troublemakers.
You're right. There are still people that take a router out of it's box, plug it in and start using it without changing the default settings or adding encryption/password protection.

People that are a little more aware do things like MAC filtering and turning off the broadcasting of the SSID. Unfortunately, someone with a little skill and some desire can easily overcome all of that.

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/

I cracked my brother's WiFi in about 10 minutes. (after explaining to him that WEP was very insecure) WPA and WPA2 help a lot, but they too can be cracked if someone has the time.

[platinumdude]

How did the neighbor get caught? Mac Address?

[Ares]

Unfortunately, there's not such thing as Wi-Fi security. Any Wi-Fi network can be easily cracked, some times it's more time consuming. If anyone is really worried, do not set up wireless.

Sure there is, don't let the access point confirm identity. You hand that off to a server. Also called RADIUS.

It's how I've secured my Wi-Fi access point at least for the last 4 years.

But I also got my hands on a gently used Dell 1750 PowerEdge server and was able to set that up. :)

[Bullion_Bob]

Unfortunately, there's not such thing as Wi-Fi security. Any Wi-Fi network can be easily cracked, some times it's more time consuming. If anyone is really worried, do not set up wireless.


In essence, what you say is true. But even establishing a network password neutralizes 95% of troublemakers.
You're right. There are still people that take a router out of it's box, plug it in and start using it without changing the default settings or adding encryption/password protection.

People that are a little more aware do things like MAC filtering and turning off the broadcasting of the SSID. Unfortunately, someone with a little skill and some desire can easily overcome all of that.

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/

I cracked my brother's WiFi in about 10 minutes. (after explaining to him that WEP was very insecure) WPA and WPA2 help a lot, but they too can be cracked if someone has the time.



I've seen WEP networks figured out in under 2 minutes, and some as fast as 30 seconds.

A 64 character password in WPA2 offers 256 bit encryption which is 2exp256 or 1.5 x 10e77 unique combination's.

How to use backtrack to hack WPA2: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-howto/30278-how-to-crack-wpa--wpa2?start=1

It would realistically take someone with (24/7) communication to your wi-fi many decades of perpetual packet communication combined with human intelligence to repeatedly collect, analyze, and re-seed routines while hoping anything quickly resembles something guessable. Otherwise it takes quite literally forever.

You could change your SSID every few years if you wanted to make crazy sure... aka there aren't hundreds of thousands (millions+ preferred) computers all packed in super close around your wireless signal trying to hack it.

Generate/paste 64 characters in notepad (numbers symbols, upper & lowercase). (30+ chars is good enough really), save to a thumb drive, then copy and paste to wherever.

I like toss in things like ░▒▓▒░╚═╩═══╦╝■²ⁿ∙≥┐Ãâ€*Å¿¢±▄▐▐▀▀▀ █▬ to make it look either "interesting", or perhaps intimidating... :D


This article lends a bunch of perspective:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/ou/is-encryption-really-crackable/204

[FreeEnergy]

I dislike US "wireless" routers that supposedly will stay on all the time. A "wireless off" button should be a standard feature on EVERY one of them (I know it is not what TPTB and agencies want...duh).

It is very rare that you need wireless 24x7. I just got myself two separate devices - wired router, and wireless access point. When no need, just turn wireless off. The best wireless security one can ever have is to have wireless turned off.