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Warflying 2013 Access Points in Los Angeles

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-thats-just-crazy dept.

Kallahar writes "We went warflying over Los Angeles and Orange counties yesterday. Flying in a small plane at 1400 feet we detected 2013 802.11b APs in 75 minutes, 71% had no WEP encryption. A map and some pretty pictures are up at my writeup."

15 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. 2013 access points... by foxtrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...is nothing; it's really kinda cool that there are that many.

    1430 of them being unsecured, that bothers the heck out of me.

    -JDF

    1. Re:2013 access points... by gnuadam · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just because it doesn't have wep doesn't quite mean that they're unsecured. I don't use wep, but I only allow designated mac addresses onto my network, and make sure that any traffic I care about is either encrypted at the protocol level, or is ssh-tunneled to a wired machine. I trust ssl much more than wep.

      --
      You say :wq, I say ZZ. Why can't we all just get along?
    2. Re:2013 access points... by Atario · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe some of them are open on purpose? Like Starbuck's and so forth? (Or are those open? I don't even know...)

      But if we had more open access points, on purpose, there'd be no need for a wireless internet company. You'd just use whatever nearby WAP was up. Free internet wherever you go.

      In other news, they flew into the future -- 2013! (Must have used a Cessna and a Commodore 64.) What are things like ten years from now??

      --
      "A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
    3. Re:2013 access points... by NightSpots · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Remember that it's an area of millions of people....

      2013 access points for 20 million people isn't all that impressive, to me at least.

      (If they had flown a little further south, down to the Irvine/Laguna/Mission Viejo areas, they would have started to see a few more secure points, as they flew over eEye and Foundstone, and all the new tech that's growing down here).

      --

      --
      Use Vobbo for Video Blogs
  2. Flew over my office. by Brigadier · · Score: 3, Insightful



    According to his map he flew right over one of our offices (Inglewood). It does seem enticing to stick an antenna out on the terrace and see what comes up. Especially since VPN traffic seems to be eating up mos of our T-1 these days.

    on a side note I recently enquired at a major computer store. one which right now is advertising free set up. And talkign to the tech he assured me that all I had to do to set up a wireless network was plug it in. Now with things like nimda, Cade Red and such with the advent of everyoen goign wireless at home and not either encryting there connections or passwording it off. hackers/script kiddies will have a field day with this. I jus tpull up to some pure schmucks house log in launch and attack then drive off and the feds would never find me.

    1. Re:Flew over my office. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Geez, remind me to never fly with you.

      LA is a congested area. As such, you're required to maintain a minimum of 1000 feet above the highest obstacle within 2000 feet horizontally of the aircraft. Not 1000 ft AGL.

      Not to mention the little bit in the FARs requiring you to maintain an altitude such that you can make a safe landing in the event that a power unit fails. 1400ft is not a lot of altitude when your landing options are concrete jungle or ocean.

  3. No WEP != No security by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just because a system does not use WEP does not mean it is insecure.

    I've been playing with a WAP - my intention is to firewall it to the point that the only things you can do are DNS, DHCP, VPN, and accessing a password-protected HTTP proxy with bandwidth throttling.

    The only thing WEP would do in such a case is prevent somebody from sniffing the proxy's password from the air, and if I cared I would just move the proxy over to HTTPS.

    Just as WEP != secure, !WEP != !secure.

    So all the "OMFG! 73% of all the APs we sniffed weren't using WEP, therefore 73% of all APs aren't secured" is somewhat flawed reasoning.

    Granted, it is likely pretty close to the truth. But it is not guaranteed to be the truth.

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
  4. Re:Warbussing by ReTay · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No the problem is that unless it inconveniences them they don't care. It is the same thing as applying patches to whatever the OS they are using. They just can't be bothered. My roommate runs his WAP wide open because he doesn't want to bother typing the MAC into his router to restrict it to approved MAC only. In my not so humble opinion they get what they are asking for. They get burned they learn. (Shrug)

  5. Re:WEP + MAC filtering by pclminion · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Right, like a person capable of cracking WEP isn't going to know how to sniff a valid MAC and reset the MAC on his own card...

    MAC locking is only secure against very casual intrusion. Most cards (all?) can be re-flashed with a new MAC.

  6. Re:Warbussing by jonfelder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The question isn't how hard...the question is how much harder is it.

    If the typical computer user has a choice between an access point that they just plugin and use, or one that they have to mess with, which do you think they'll most likely pick?

  7. Re:That's nuts by Jarnis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Laugh when you get your net access cut and/or you get sued due to something that originated from your IP(s). You are responsible what connects to the network via your pipe to the outside. If you prefer to sit on the net with your ass bare for unauthorized Rear Entry, do not whine when someone abuses it and causes you trouble.

    New spam tech;
    1. Roam around for open wireless networks, run spam off your laptop connected to that wireless lan until cut off.
    2. Drive to next WLAN, rinse, repeat
    3. Profit!!!

  8. Re:That's nuts by mcmonkey · · Score: 2, Insightful
    whats the worse they can do?

    Download kiddie pr0n, send spam, launch a DoS attack...in short, the types of things that can get you in trouble.

    Seriously, jokers like you ruin the internet for the rest of us. "So I'm running an open relay, what's the worst they can do?" Dipshit.

  9. Re:Hey thats my SSID by double-oh+three · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's called open spectrum. There was a wired article about it a few months ago.

    --
    "For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
  10. Orinoco range extender is not 2-3 dbi by eyeareque · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the antenna is actually 5dbi.. its such a shame they used such a weak antenna for the test... and it was inside the cabin.. you'd think they would have realized the planes shell would effect how many APs they found.

  11. question for ya... by sbma44 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    does wep encrypt mac addresses too? or can those be sniffed easily w/ wep on?

    Personally, I just use MAC filtering. Yeah, you can spoof a MAC address pretty easily on most hardware in windows. But I'm on 802.11b, and WEP definitely slows things down. And it was periodically resetting the connection on my Orinoco card.

    Bottom line, consumer wireless gear can't keep out anyone who's determined to get in. I say make a stab at it to disclaim some liability, use decent security on your LAN, and call it a day.