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FBI Warns Companies About Wireless Warchalking
nobilid writes: "Well-meaning wireless activists have caught the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. One of its agents has issued a warning about the popular practice of using chalk marks to show the location of wireless networks."
"The FBI is now telling companies that, if they see the chalk marks outside their offices, they should check the security of wireless networks and ensure they remain closed to outsiders. "
Hey, how about you do this even if you DONT see chalk marks?
Don't Tread on Me
Because this isn't the point of warchalking. Most warchalkers - and I made the first ever warchalking mark - use them to mark out their own open nodes, for the sake of others using them. I've seen many many warchalking marks around London, and none of them is for an unintentionally available network.
The FBI's whole premise is bollocks, and you shouldn't assume that because it's possible to mark up a wlan that isn't yours that people actually do.
Have you ever TRIED telling someone that you're not employed by that they have security issues? (If you're an employee, it's still a hard enough issue sometimes, depending on politics).
I had a friend who had a friend who ran a webshop, with everything running NT. We benignly poked around for all of about 90 seconds probing for 2 known NT holes (had been known about for over a year at that point) and found the entire database for a local HR company completely exposed via the web (SQL Server 7 I believe it was). Repeated phone calls and emails to that shop went unnoticed. Notifying the HR company that their data was exposed and that they should notify their webshop resulted in threats of lawsuits and other less legal retaliatory measures for 'hacking', 'breaking in', etc.
Walking in to someone's house through their open front door is seen as bad, even if you're simply trying to tell them that their door is open and they should close/lock it because of burglars. Hell, you might even be a master locksmith, but they'll probably still call the police.
It's just not that easy to tell the network owners they are vulnerable. You may very well face 'hacking' charges.
creation science book
No no no. you've got it all wrong. The reason people should be warchalking is to mark OPEN nodes. Nodes that belong to groups like Personal Telco Project in Portland, OR, or Seattle Wireless, or Austin Wireless. These nodes are MEANT to be used for FREE by the PUBLIC. Thats why people should warchalk. Thats why there are two separate symbols, a closed circle for closed networks (meaning stay away) and an 'open circle' for open networks, saying go ahead and use it.