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Drive-By Hacking in London
delibes writes "The BBC News website carries this story about hacking wireless networks in London's financial centre. " There isn't really much in the way of details, just saying that many businesses don't encrypt their networks. They talk about finding 12 networks while driving 1km... 8 of which had no encryption.
I get ethernet connectivity once in a while in the Linux Car. There's some details in the news section of the page.
Enjoy.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
I have to believe that the network honchos at these companies are in the *testing* phase of their wireless implementation. I bet some of them just threw up the network, with some monitoring tools - just to see what would happen.
That's what I'd do.
I read this as saying that the network owners are leaving their networks open on purpose. And really, why not? This is the way I have mine configured... Wireless Freenets anyone? If my machines are secure, why shouldn't I let the neighbor piggyback?
Guvegrra?
It's illegal to do that? Not my problem, I liken this to a publicly accessable park.
I'm wondering if its possible to track down people who are illegally gaining access down to their physical locations, such as through triangulations and such.
In case of fire, do not use elevator. Use water!
Check out BBC TV Center with a scanner... you can really fuck about with their radio mic's, of the fun.
1. Individual companies knowingly installed these networks, and failed to encrypt and secure the access to them.
:-)
2. "Hackers" used their own legally obtained hardware and software to identify these networks.
3. They identified these networks while traveling on a public right of way.
From where I sit, the people who do this are not doing anything wrong UNTIL they begin to wreak havoc on the network(s), and start causing problems for the companies. The onus is on the people setting up the wireless nets to secure them. If individuals can ID these networks, use them, and not cause damage, more power to them.
If the network admins are dumb enough to setup these nets and NOT block unauthorized users, they deserve all the problems that they will inherit.
Finally, why does a brick and mortar office NEED wireless? Isn't cat5 already available to every desktop? Wired nets are invulnerable to wireless hacks, hence, 100% secure against wireless hackers. Well, unless the wireless hackers find a vulnerable wireless net, hack onto your network throught that one.......yadda.
I used to live in Brixton in South London. At first, I was against the cameras, but then I saw how they had a positive effect on reducing crime.
I now live in central Barcelona, where the pickpocketing and bag snatching is terrible. Frankly I wish they would install those cameras here.
And having walked around the streets of New York and San Francisco at night, I think they wouldn't go amiss there either.
It's not the cameras that you need to be afraid of, it's how they are used. As far as I can see they have had a good effect on reducing crime in many UK crimespots, without any infringements on anyones personal freedom (unless you're completely paranoid, in which case you'd better stay indoors with the lights out and your lead helmet on).
Where I work, we have a network segement that requires no log in. Assuming you have a laptop, you can connect and get internet access - you need no special software on your machine. You are firewalled (properly) from everything else. Activity is monitored by the IP address you are assigned: if you are doing something silly, you would be booted off. ( I think the monitoring is automatic, and based on bandwidth consumed - not sure)
The whole point of this is that when people come in to do a presentation, they can get internet access without bothering the support team. Mucking around with VPN software etc on someone elses laptop always ends in tears.
How many of these wireless networks are the same sort of thing? If people started to leech in earnest then more security would be applied.
Let them truckers roll, 10-4!
For instance the Cisco Aironet 350's give you the option to block all MAC addresses by default from associating with an access point.
I can add a MAC on one access point (through a web interface) and then distribute that filter to all the other access points on my network with a couple clicks.
This comes in handy when preventing theft of service. And of course it's pretty difficult to sniff out data if you can't get on the network in the first place..
There's also an "Association Table" that lists all associated and disassociated MAC's. This comes in handy.
If you're not into Cisco's products (or price), I'm assuming the Ciscos aren't the only equipment which provide this type of functionality.