July 27, 2004

Surprise! People Use Wireless!

SearchSecurity.com reports that attendees at the Democratic National Convention are apparently using a lot of unsecured wireless devices. Wireless security firm Netbury Networks ran a war-driving sweep for three hours around FleetCenter, the location of the DNC, detecting a "heavy concentration" of wireless devices--more than 3,000 wi-fi devices and more than 400 wireless access points--with 65% of them unencrypted.
There won't be any Wi-Fi access inside the FleetCenter. But with so many devices in a one-block radius, my biggest concern is that a laptop plugged into the DNC's wired network will still be able to access wireless devices outside," [Netbury's] Gray said. "An attacker could make a bridge between an outside wireless connection and the wired network inside. Then they could use infected laptops to disrupt the proceedings."
Poor understanding about standard security procedures has long (and increasingly) plagued wireless users. Because providers of wireless devices are interested in portraying the technology as transparent and automatic, they fail to inform users about potential security risks. Users often end up being collateral damage in the marketing of wi-fi technologies.

[via Lockergnome Bytes] Posted by johndan at July 27, 2004 10:18 PM | TrackBack