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"Free Wi-Fi" Scam In the Wild

Posted by kdawson on from the click-to-get-pwned dept.

DeadlyBattleRobot writes in with a story from Computerworld about a rather simple scam that has been observed in the wild in several US airports. Bad guys set up a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network and name it "Free Wi-Fi." You join it and, if you have file sharing enabled, your computer becomes a zombie. The perp has set up Internet sharing so you actually get the connectivity you expected, and you are none the wiser. Of course no one reading this would fall for such an elementary con. The article gives detailed instructions on how to make sure your computer doesn't connect automatically to any offered network, and how to tell if an access point is really an ad hoc network (it's harder on Vista).

2 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. Red flags on first page of article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm not going to bother reading the whole thing because the first page was so bad.

    1) They'll be able to read your user names and passwords for financial web sites
    Only if you're dumb enough to not use SSL.

    2) Having file-sharing on will allow them to make you into a zombie
    Only if you have your shares horribly misconfigured.

    3) The hacker will change your wi-fi settings
    Again, only if you have your shares horribly configured.

    *Maybe* Windows is broken enough to allow someone to do this just based on a single wi-fi connection, but I doubt it.

    -Andrew

  2. Re:And especially don't mess with user ID 007 by larry+bagina · · Score: 0, Troll

    CowboyKneel and CmdrTaco are known to have a sex life, if you know what I mean (*cough*turd burglars*cough*)

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.