Wireless security monitoring grows

United Press International ^ | December 10, 2004 | Gene Koprowski

[kerrywearsbotox]

Gene J. Koprowski United Press International

Last updated: Dec. 10, 2004 at 11:40AM CHICAGO, Dec. 10 (UPI) — An executive walks into a meeting and unobtrusively puts a stylish pen down on the conference table, atop his notebook. The off-the-record session is for informational purposes only, but down the street from the high-rise office tower where the meeting is being held, a security team in a van with a plumber's logo on it is monitoring the meeting on video screens. They are recording every statement and gesture by the participants based on the imagery and sound being broadcast wirelessly from the executive's pen. "There are many cool, new technologies becoming available," a spokeswoman for the Steadfast Group, a consulting company that works with utilities on critical infrastructure issues, told UPI's Wireless World. This includes "camera-video transmitters disguised as pens." -- Wireless World is a weekly series by United Press International covering emerging wireless telecommunications technologies, by Gene Koprowski, who covers technology for UPI Science News. E-mail: sciencemail@upi.com

[kerrywearsbotox]

Great story about wireless securtiy monitoring.

[First_Salute]

Darn ... somebody seems to be jamming the signal.

[The Great RJ]

Home and business wireless Internet connections are also vulnerable. A favorite passtime among computer nerds is "war driving" driving around with a laptop computer and seeing how many open wireless connections you can get into. I can routinely get access to our neighbor's wireless system and have have politely warned him about his system being vulnerable.

Be sure to have your security settings turned on and change the access pasword when settng up your wireless site. It's also a good idea to all of your computers protected with an individual firewall.

[G.Mason]

" Still, if the good guys can access the wireless devices, so can the bad guys."

What?

Say it isn't so!

Just imagine what's going to happen when these nerds get tired of placing "da pen" in the bathrooms.

[G.Mason]

"I can routinely get access to our neighbor's wireless system and have have politely warned him about his system being vulnerable."

Politely warned him?

Just how does one "politely" warn a neighbor that they are spying on him?

Nerd is right!

[Starwolf]

Though I am not the Great RJ, it happens a lot. Someone nearby puts in a wireless router, and their network show up on neighbors stations as an available open network. No geeking or spying requried.

When that happens I try to locate the house and discuss the matter with them, and help them lock it down. At one house the parents they insisted they did not have a network. They were clueless what the kids had installed, and it was wide open...

[G.Mason]

"Though I am not the Great RJ, it happens a lot. Someone nearby puts in a wireless router, and their network show up on neighbors stations as an available open network. No geeking or spying requried."

In my best Johnny Carson imitation ... "I did not know that".

Thanks for the information and re-aligning my "head space".

The older I get the dumber I get. Was that the original plan?

[jokar]

Clueless wireless bump

[EUPHORIC]

"Just how does one "politely" warn a neighbor that they are spying on him?"

I thought that the "YoUr KoMpUtEr haZ b33n HAXORED by StOrMbRiNgEr!!!" wallpaper I replaced a neighbors with was actually quite polite and proper. :)

[cspackler]

Every time I fire up my laptop, I can see at least three additional networks close enough to pick up, two of which are not encrypted.

I had a power outage a while back, which reset my router. I didn't realize for 2 months that it had dropped my encryption. No telling who was using mine...

If you really want access, just go park in pretty much any school parking lot. Most of them now have wireless, and not enough sense to secure it.

[Old Professer]

You try that on the wrong guy and you'll need a firewall.

[G.Mason]

"Clueless wireless bump"

The redness is just now leaving my face.

If ignorance is bliss, I'm a happy camper. ;)

[G.Mason]

"I thought that the "YoUr KoMpUtEr haZ b33n HAXORED by StOrMbRiNgEr!!!" wallpaper I replaced a neighbors with was actually quite polite and proper. :)"

LOL!

[general_re]

I thought that the "YoUr KoMpUtEr haZ b33n HAXORED by StOrMbRiNgEr!!!" wallpaper I replaced a neighbors with was actually quite polite and proper. :)

You laugh, but I spent a fair amount of time trying to persuade some friends of ours that they should really lock down their wireless network. They simply wouldn't believe it was a potential problem until we went over for dinner one night. Before we went up to ring the bell, I pulled out my laptop in the driveway, and started popping up Messenger Service dialogs and uploading files to their shared folders. Needless to say, they were ready to talk security that evening.

Not that I'd do that with some random stranger, or anyone who wasn't a close friend, but a demonstration was remarkably effective in that case ;)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Bump and bookmark - coming back to this one for later read.