I have just listened to a Radio 4 program where a "Wireless Security Professional" was talking about a survey that he was conducting that claimed the a large number of WiFi Network users were at risk due to the fact that their routers were either not protected by a password or they were using "Old Technology" (using encryption such as WEP).
This is largely nonsense! It is just a way of him promoting his business and others like him that would like to sell you a solution to this "problem".
I am not saying that your information cannot be obtained by the so-called cyber-criminals but I have been studying this for as long as there have been wireless networks and I have yet to find a way! You could say that this is because I am not as smart as the criminals and those that are supposedly taking advantage of all this, however, I do not think that this is the case. If you read this blog and my website, tempusfugit.ca - I think that you will see that I have been looking at this at great length for a lot of time.
There were many other inconsistencies and errors in what the "expert" was saying and I will go into these with others that may want to ask questions. The radio piece had far too many "coulds" for my liking. Like "a criminal could see what your banking details are." The emphasis was on the could and not that the criminal can.
This is largely nonsense! It is just a way of him promoting his business and others like him that would like to sell you a solution to this "problem".
I am not saying that your information cannot be obtained by the so-called cyber-criminals but I have been studying this for as long as there have been wireless networks and I have yet to find a way! You could say that this is because I am not as smart as the criminals and those that are supposedly taking advantage of all this, however, I do not think that this is the case. If you read this blog and my website, tempusfugit.ca - I think that you will see that I have been looking at this at great length for a lot of time.
There were many other inconsistencies and errors in what the "expert" was saying and I will go into these with others that may want to ask questions. The radio piece had far too many "coulds" for my liking. Like "a criminal could see what your banking details are." The emphasis was on the could and not that the criminal can.
2 comments:
You're wrong. As far as I've read, one can intercept and decrypt the WiFi traffic. WEP, WPA and WPA2 are good enough to keep your friendly neighbor from using your internet connection, nothing more.
Should you want to do some more private stuff (i.e. banking) configure your router to block all traffic from WiFi to the wired network and config page. Then use the wired connection.
How am I wrong?
I stated that I was not saying that your information could not be obtained by those "listening-in" on your WIFi. I did say that I had yet a way to find a way to how to do so myself.
Also, my point was that the broadcaster was just spreading fear to promote his Security Business such that he could make
his customers safe.
If you have read, that you can intercept WiFi traffic (and I agree that you can), it would be far more constructive to provide a few links to the articles. I have covered many of the techniques on how you can monitor the traffic from WiFi networks on my website - I would suggest that you have not read them.
As far as Internet banking and other activities that require security, most of the websites that I know use HTTPS connections. i.e. they use encrypted protocols. The only way that a "hacker" would be able to get your details is to have previously
installed a key-logger on your computer. If this were a real problem there would be many reports in the press that Internet banking is unsafe.
However, thank you for taking the time to comment on my post.
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