Growth of Wi-Fi Opens New Path for Thieves

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday March 19, 2005 @05:35AM from the high-tech-breakins dept.

E. Harley writes "Wi-Fi connections are popping up all over the place from retails locations, schools, municipalities, and homes. Unintentionally or not, most of these wi-fi hot spots never change the system's default settings, hide the connection from others, or encrypt the data sent over it. This NY Times article [Free registration required] talks about the size and extent of the problem, and what has happened with law enforcement investigating criminals using these public connections. Also, the article updates us on an earlier Slashdot story about wardriving. That case is still pending."

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Registration free link by jonathan3003 · 2005-03-19 05:48 · Score: 5, Informative

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/technology/19wif i.html?ex=1268888400&en=51d90e7518bba5d6&ei=5090&p artner=rssuserland/
Re:Simple! by pegr · 2005-03-19 06:02 · Score: 4, Informative

Everybody is forgetting each and every ethernet adapter has a unique serial number/address, called the MAC address. It would be very easy to prove/disprove you were the one or not by that address.

Google "etherchange" and see what you get... Here is the first hit... MAC addresses don't prove diddley...