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Residential Wi-Fi Mapping Database Revealed
Talaria writes "An enormous database of home wifi routers and their locations has been revealed after the Internet Patrol did some digging following AOL's recent announcement of their new "Near Me" service, which allows AIM users to see which of their instant messenger buddies are geographically near them. The database, containing the unique IDs of more than 16 million wireless routers and their locations, has been compiled by AOL partner Skyhook Wireless, which claims to have mapped the majority of residences in the U.S. and Canada."
Why don't they just color code it to show the non-secure points and send a fax to all known hackers?
oh... just got an email!!
The original generic sig.
How soon before a nearly free public cellular wi/fi etc. network?
Man, that's some weak sauce.
My GPS unit for wardriving comes via Fedex tomorrow. Now they've taken all the fun out of it :(.
but you didn't turn off your MAC broadcasts!
I'm guessing even though my SSID is disabled they still could have found mine. I'm getting tempted to run that 75foot cable to my couch.
Now I don't have to cruise through neighborhoods to pick up access points to get into then commit crimes, I can just check the internet!
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
The site isn't loading for meo rmous-map-of-wifi-servers-including-yours-revealed -by-aol-and-skyhook-announcement
Hit the Coralized link:
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com.nyud.net:8080/en
My only response to "ZOMG databse!!"
is that anyone could do this if they had time and money.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Who would be surprised about this? Are there still people out there who think that there's some magical way of being attached to the Net and still being anonymous? You've gotta be especially naive to think that your wireless router, broadcasting information into the air, isn't going to be picked up by somebody other than you.
I don't respond to AC's.
I love this silly blog... "according to news sources..."... like it's some kind of secret database. Here's a better source: http://www.skyhookwireless.com/ On their front page
"Skyhook Wireless provides a software-only positioning system that leverages a nationwide database of known Wi-Fi access points to calculate the precise location of any Wi-Fi enabled device. "
I don't respond to AC's.
Next time you see a skyhook truck drive by, unplug your router. Then block the doorway and get out the double barrel shotgun.
Freedom is a state of mind. A mind is a state of being. Stay the fuck out of my mind and my being. - Corporate Avenger
A truck records signal from your WiFi router? How about people taking a picture of your house to sell to banks and insurance companies? Or aerial close-ups of your backyard?
-- Stanislav Shalunov
If there is a way once you detect someone attaching to your wireless network to fry their computer remotely
... That privacy no longer exists.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
I like to use the WiGle database ande -wigle-wifi-to-google-earth-client-for-wardrive-ma pping
http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=security/igigl
to do my mapping in Google Earth.
Guess war chalking is obsolete now.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
- Set SSID to something random, and don't broadcast it
- I even use WEP, as supposedly insecure and old school as that is
- So far I have shown up on no wardriving maps
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
I've been uploading wardriving stuff to WiGLE for over a year, using that you can actually even see the access point names and if security is turned on: http://www.wigle.net/.
Didn't Apple trademark "iSpy" for a new product?
I honestly don't understand all the hype regarding wireless. Sure, it's convenient for laptops in an airport, cafe, or other public location, but to me it just doesn't make sense for most residences. I think it's main selling point is the fact that people don't have to run wires and people are generally cheap and lazy. But I wired my house myself (16 outlets over 6 rooms) for about $300 in equipment (router, patch panel, 1000' cable, tools, etc) and two days of my time. The setup is fantastic and I don't have to worry about some random jackass piggy-backing my connection. Even if you have a couple of laptops in your house it wouldn't be a problem if you planned an appropriate wiring scheme. Of course if you want to roam around your house and in your yard with your laptop wireless is really the only option, but in my estimation the vast majority of residences consist of exclusively non-portable desktop machines. In that regard wireless is used simply because it is easy and cheap.
Little girls go wiresless; real men run wires.
http://www.wifimaps.com/ - add MAC addresses and street addresses, and you're golden...
Noone ever connects to my wide open wireless with an SSID of "Honeypot".
FLR
http://www.wigle.net/gps/gps/Map/onlinemap2/
it's been out there for a long time. Most people into war driving know about it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So what database is being used by 'Microsofts Streets and Trips 2007' "Wi-Fi Location Provider"/"Locate Me" feature? Picked my location without hesitation.
I am not surprised by this. In fact, having been the guy that started WiFiMaps.com (In '02), I've been talking about this to others for quite a while now. Positioning yourself using wifi is probably the most useful application for wardriving data. Does it need to be accurate? No, not really. I've talked to scientists working on sub-meter acuracy, and it is very difficult. If you can find out on which part of which block, there are tons and tons and tons of location applets you can think of off the top of your head to make use of that. If there are people interested in a copy of our national (and some other countries) database of wifi locations, ours is GPL'd. What we don't have, is an all-in-one IM applet, which I guess Skyhook and AOL are now trying. Kudos. I sure wish I had some business skills. That can be the difference between the company's product as a topic on slashdot, and a dude at home posting on slashdot with no pants on.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Oh wait, this is slashdot. Nevermind.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
My bet is that this was funded by NSA, CIA or most likely FBI.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I have wired to homes where each had 2300 up...
What does that mean? I guessed that you meant "two" instead of "to", but what does "where each had 2300 up" mean?
Is there a wireless incarnation where it is a girl?
Wire to each room is a no brainier but wireless is also useful, I dont want a wire draped accross the couch when I am checking sports scores on my notebook and watching TV...what if I want to sit outside on the porch, or in the middle of the back yard for that matter, am I supposed to string a cable drop to the old oak tree? a drop that I may use 3 times a year...why be tethered? doing huge file transfer is one thing, but wifi is great for most every day stuff. Your post shows a sense of elitism that is the essence of what turns people off to this site.
What's wrong with companies, naming themselves after non-clever skynet euphemisms?
Skyhook Wireless? Come on.
Quick, everyone trade routers! Let's make some poor data entry grunt cry.
That should read Skynet, not Skyhook
3A 4E 22 05 C1 83 0B 7A
It's random, but my posting it here is probably considered illegal to someone.
You could just line your living room with lead... and this way I'm getting 0 interference.
The article says that they have the "unique ID" of my home network. This really disturbs me because, as I'm sure most of the rest of you have done, I have configured my network to prevent this. I run a Cisco aironet 1200 AP with 802.11i, AES encryption, as the only supported method, and my SSID is nondiscoverable until you've progressed through the encryption handshake. What is this "unique id" they managed to snarf? How did they break AES 256?
I've gotta say that's a remarkable attack!
Has nobody mentioned yet that Microsoft Streets and Trips has had this built-in for years?
Seriously, what genius thought this was a good idea in the first place? How long is it going to be before the headlines read something like "Stalker kidnaps child with AIM"? I want to know how this idea got a green light considering the potential danger that it is going to create
Wait until IPv6 rolls out.
Here's what I wrote to the fine person who wrote the linked article, who I respect enormously, but think got it wrong in this case:
First, and sort of a priori, Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum. The use of that spectrum means that you accept (however unknowingly, your point!) that any use treads in the public space. There are ways to reduce the signal strength of many Wi-Fi gateways if you want to penetrate further.
Second, what they're gathering is just a number (the BSSID, which is the unique base station identifier for networks that are set to broadcast). They do not access the network. And they can't provide any kind of exact correlation. Nor is there a way to associate BSSIDs with individuals or addresses in their system or elsewhere. (It's also not all home networks; there are millions and millions of business networks also being recorded.)
Third, their data is their crown jewel. They have every interest in protecting it in the strongest possible ways. The information they release is a set of coordinates based on signals measured and sent via their system. So you can't really perform millions of arbitrary queries, but rather only queries mediated through their software. This limits exposure.
So you have no specific information based on public use of public spectrum and strong needs to protect the data against unwanted access...
Sounds fairly reasonable to me.
If they started pairing individual addresses with BSSIDs, and sold that to Wi-Fi makers and others who would then perform direct mailings to users to get them to switch brands or add security -- that would be creepy.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
Soon router manufacturers will recommend replacing your router every 6 months to keep your SSID fresh and unmapped. You'll find shops pop up across the country offering "router change" service for $19.95. Watch out for that hazardous disposal fee!
I was able to recover the currently slash-dotted article via google's cache:
Somehow along the way I made a bad choice in life and now must live with 0 Karma.
Has anyone heard of a house being robbed because burglars found a wireless connection?
Is this a scheme by AOL Skyhook Wireless to sell more Wireless Routers?
Exactly. There is no harm in anyone knowing that the wi-fi access point near or at my physical address has such and such BSSID. It doesn't add to any tool set that would allow someone to monitor me or my activity. All it means is that someone passing through my neighborhood can find out where they are by listening for my and other's APs. These are merely just electronic landmarks that have been mapped out. The BSSID of my AP is never passed along the net in such a way that it could be used for tracing some packet back to my location.
The reaction to these should be "neat idea, I wonder if it will work" instead of paranoid hype about privacy.
If anyone can think of a way that some three letter agency could make use of that database to invade anyone's privacy, please spell out the details. The only thing that I can see is for marketers wanting to know the install base for D-link versus Linksys, etc. I suppose that Linksys could find that I'm using a D-link and send mail to my street address encouraging me to switch. But that is the worst I can imagine.
Prime numbers are exactly what Alan Greenspan says they are -S. Minsky
And the rat them out to the RIAA.
Unless the SSID has the address in it, which I see that several of the networks around my apartment do. "shadows109" is apt 109 of the complex I live in, 1600villa_107 is unit 107 of the apartments at 1600 Villa street, and so on.
You're right. (Although the BSSID is not equal to the SSID. The BSSID is typically the MAC address of the Wi-Fi system in the gateway; the SSID is default or human-set text.)
However, if someone chooses to expose their identity in the SSID, then aren't they making a statement already about their concern for privacy? I used to label our network with our street address, but my wife asked me to change it. It's now Generic Home Network. Actually, after a change in setup, it's Generic Heim Netzwerk.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
Every access point has a hardware address that never changes (unless the owner is a firmware-flashing geek) and is always broadcast, even if you turn off SSID broadcasts. If you have a powered-on wireless access point and they've scanned your area, your AP is in the database.
Sounds like a great way to find stolen Access Points, WiFi cards, laptops with built-in WiFi, and other such gear. B-)
How many petty thieves are going to re-flash the gear to change the MAC address? (And if they do it will still show up as MAC addresses appearing multiply in the maps and/or addresses outside the allocated ranges.)
(Our company had some APs stolen a while back. The IT guys did a little wardriving but didn't find them. We've upgraded since so it probably won't matter to us. But it could be really useful for people who had stuff stolen more recently.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
OK, I'll bite. We have a lot of comps in my house. Most of them are towers, and they are wired. However, we also have several laptops. When I, or my parents, or my sister are at our desks, wires are fine. When we're sitting in the living room, kitchen, terrace, etc. they're not. Running 1 wire to living room... maybe, if it's needed. Running 4 or 5? Ugly, a pain, and n ot necessary since it can be taken care of with wireless. Sure I could drape the living room in wires, but why bother? If I needs high speed data xfer to my other comps, I plug in to the gigbit wire. Otherwise, 11g is just fine for web (hell, it's overkill), and the convinience is great.
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
use wireless to play poker on their laptop while sitting on the crapper.
All right! Break out the 12 gauge and ax. Another trailer park war.
What?
Some of you may remember this story: Hacker Sentenced To Longest US Sentence Yet about a young man who accessed a wide open access point to check his Yahoo! e-mail. The feds nailed him for "Unauthorized Access to a Protected Computer" because he accessed the Lowes Store Wi-Fi Access Point. I fail to see how Skyhook's methods are any different. They may not have used the access point to do something, but they still connected to it, uninvited.
If it's good enough for our real life citizens, it should also apply to our corporate citizens; at least in a fair and just world.
-Runz
I misread "to see which of their instant messenger buddies are geographically near them." as bullies. Seriously, I do not lie.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
I think it's main selling point is the fact that people don't have to run wires and people are generally cheap and lazy.
Or have other, higher, priorities for their time and money.
Uh...what kind of crimes?
I guess you can't mean any ordinary physical crime, like robbing someone or burglarizing his house, for which a wireless access is wholly unnecessary.
So what could you do with wireless access from your black-painted car or truck that you can't do as easily (or with equal difficulty) from the comfort of your regular crime lair, or from the Starbucks down the street?
Particularly sweet are the WiFi hot spots in the middle of large lakes.
The assumption is that wireless access points are permanently located in one location, but once in a while that is not true. One example would be a couple who has both a summer cabin and a winter home. They might own just one wireless access point or wireless router and take it to their other home for the other potion of the year. Another example would be a retired couple who has a home in a colder part of the country and who, every winter, take their large motor home or travel trailer to Arizona or Florida for the winter. They might also take their wireless router and their laptop computer with them for the winter. Because of these moving wireless routers, the database of wireless locations will, presumably, occasionally be wrong.
There are also cases where a wireless router might make a one time move to a new location. For instance a home owner or business might move to a new location. Another example would be a small business owner who would initially configure and try out their wireless router at home and then after they have everything working perfectly take it to work and set it up permanently there. How quickly will the database of wireless access points be updated with the new location?
Of course, no such system is perfect. For example, I just put my address into mapquest.com and even after all these years, their map still is wrong about where I live. About seven years ago, I sent them the GPS coordinates for my address and described the nearest cross streets and they thanked me for the information and never changed a thing.
I randomize my MAC daily but I didn't know the SSID could leak. It sucks because the SSID 'secret' is how my notebooks assosciate. Any links you can dig up? I use the standard stumbler stuff..
Release the Butterflies!!!!
"ok, who forgot to feed the butterflies....."
Now you too can have the biggest tin-foil hat in the neighborhood
with the in home do-it-yourself Farraday Cage wallpaper and window treatments kit!
Or just move into one of the older (and I mean OLD)
houses that are lined with a tin sheath...
(I forget the original purpose of it)
Like the older homes in Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago.
Cellphone has full signal outside... no signal inside.
While your perfecting this device I'd like you to consider testing on a vehicle that seems to parade down my street 4 times a day while subjecting me and my windows to the effects of his 2000(?) watt automotive megabass setup.