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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 06/12/08
LOS ANGELES - As more Americans use wireless networks everywhere from coffee
shops and airports to libraries, the FBI has begun warning that hackers are
increasingly lurking nearby to steal identities and pilfer bank accounts through
unsecured Wi-Fi systems.
Unlike wired systems, which use cables to transport information through the Internet,
Wi-Fi uses radio waves that industry leaders say are inherently more vulnerable.
And with an estimated 68,000 Wi-Fi "hot spots" in the United States now, and many more
on their way, users are unaware that some of those sites, including entire cities and
towns, might be unsecure.
While there are no exact numbers of individuals who might have fallen victim to such scams,
the FBI is warning that information exchanged over those waves can be intercepted. And that
means cyberthieves will be waiting to pounce.
"Make sure you’re connecting to the town and not a guy who happens to be in town," Bryan
Duchene, an FBI cybercrimes supervisor in Los Angeles, said of towns offering free Wi-Fi service.
After setting up shop at or near Wi-Fi hot spots, criminals can access personal information from users
of unsecured servers who don’t have adequate safeguards on their computers.
Another ploy takes advantage of the fact that some laptops, by default, will log on to the strongest signal
when searching for a wireless connection. For a laptop user sitting at Starbucks, that signal might belong
to a legitimate-looking, but bogus, server operated by a hacker, Duchene said.
"If the bad guy happens to be sitting two tables over and he’s broadcasting a (stronger) signal, it’ll
override what you’re trying to get to," he said.
Once in, a hacker can steal passwords and credit-card information and install viruses, worms and other
malicious software or malware on a computer that can spread to other systems you run.
Duchene recommends that Wi-Fi users change their settings so they have to manually input the Service Set
Identifier or SSID they want to log on to.
While free-access seekers spawned the "wardriving" phenomenon, Wi-Fi users drove around with GPS systems
and Wi-Fi-seeking laptops, marking locations of unsecured, free Wi-Fi sites, that practice eventually piqued
the interest of criminals, Duchene said.
"Some people were just trying to have a free economic society, and there are always those people who will take
something like that and exploit it for bad purposes," he said.
After browsing the wireless Internet at a Barnes & Noble bookstore cafe in Burbank, Myleik Teele, 29, of Los Angeles
said she routinely looks for unsecured wireless networks to gain free access to the Internet.
"If I’m somewhere else, I don’t even check," she said. "If I click on and I’m online, I don’t even worry
about it."
Teele bought a secured limited-access pass to check her e-mail and surf the Net at the cafe. She readily admits,
like scores of others, there’s a lot she doesn’t know about how Wi-Fi works.
"Sometimes (at home), my computer will jump onto my neighbor’s signal," she said. "I will see Apartment 1A (on my screen)
and I won’t even be on my own Internet." (New York Times)
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