Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Drive-By Hacking in London

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

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.

2 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Is this ethical/legal or not? by billmaly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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. :-)

  2. This may not be as bad as it sounds by fleabag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.