War Driving: Is Your Computer Safe?

Long, long ago in a land not too far away Webster?s dictionary had a new word listed in between internecine and internist. Internet. Noun. An electronic communications network that connects computer networks worldwide. In a very short time our imagination seemed endless with the Internet.

Communication with relatives in other countries, recipes that were so hard to find, research, at your fingertips. It just didn?t seem like it could get better, until, it was demanded to do so.

Nowadays, dial up Internet connections are becoming much like the cassette tape, old news. Broadband and DSL connections dominate the workplace and many homes. Desktop computers, once so savvy and trendy, are being cast aside for laptop devices that weigh less than a gallon of milk. Laptops gave us the freedom to go to the couch, but tethered to a wall. And then, wireless networking came to the consumer. Internet on a laptop ? anywhere is possible, no wires, no tangles. But with all of this there is a price, and that price is security.

The fast pace of the information age is hard to keep up with, both for users and for those in the industry. Securing the information on a computer is now one of the leading businesses in the tech industry. When a corporation goes wireless, it needs to know that its network is protected from outside sources. It needs to be confident that its intellectual property is safe. But from whom?

What Is War Driving?

Wireless is great, wireless is fun, and user friendly, but its security risks are many ? for business, but more so for the home user.

And there is a name for the rogue group that is tapping into these connections, war drivers.

The term war driving, coined by Pete Shipley, comes from an older computer term, war dialing. War dialing came to the vocabulary of the masses via the movie "War Games." In that film, war dialing is the act of using a modem attached to a computer to dial an entire exchange of phone numbers to locate any computers with modems attached to them.

War dialing uses that same concept, rather, using laptop computers with wireless cards in them to find open wireless access points in any given area. Basically, if a war driver hits an open access point that is unprotected, he can use it to surf the Net for free.

That isn?t the main problem. The bigger issue here is if that war driver is doing it for more information that just a free, quick surf.

That war driver, if he connects to an openaccess point that is unprotected by its owner, can get into the files, the intellectual properties, of that connected point ? if those files are not locked down and unshared.

If you are an average residential user, you no not lock down your files and account information ? and you don't take basic steps to encrypt your wireless connection. What would a person do if he got his hands on your files?

"Identity theft is the biggest fear," says Bill Strub of Accuvant Security Systems. "If someone is malicious, they can get your Quicken files, your IM conversations ? basically everything on your computer is fair game."

Is It Really Happening Here?

In a nutshell, yes. It happens everywhere.

The reasons why are simple, it?s an underground phenomena, and it's easy to do. Let?s face it, who doesn?t want a free wireless connection if they can get it?

"Obviously if you have the capacity to get a free quick Internet connection you are going to try it," says Josh Kapellen of the Geek Squad, "Is it right or wrong? Well, that has yet to be said."

Driving around gathering lists of access points on your laptop isn?t hurting anyone, ?It?s what you do with those access points after that,? says Strub, "That is where the gray issue begins."

Most people, Strub and Kapellen agree, are just looking for a free connection. Or, are just "gaming" to see how many open ports there are out there in ether world. Many war drivers do nothing more than compile maps of wireless networks. But, there are others who play differently.

"It can be bad. It's just like anything else ? it depends on the person who is using it." Kapellen says.

Many cities have actual maps that are pretty easily found in web searches of the areas that have high concentrations of wireless ports. That isn?t so surprising nowadays with nearly every urban coffee shop and café offering "wi-fi" connections in their establishments. The same goes for hotels, some restaurants, and apartment complexes. Wireless is in demand, and in turn, is being supplied.

A quick war drive through a couple of Twin Cities suburbs shows the real problem ? many of you have wireless, and most of the many, are unprotected. One example is in Bloomington. Just off of 494, on an average Monday afternoon, we took a quick war drive in the neighborhoods. In less than 15 minutes we had at least 30 hits from homes and of those thirty open access points, only four were locked down.

"I would relate that to saying to you 'would allow a random person to walk into your house and plug their computer into your home network, would you do that knowingly?'" Kapellen asks, "Probably not, but that is exactly what you are doing if you are not securing your wireless network."

A second war drive took us to Minnetonka and there, in less than seven minutes, 11 hits, none of them were secured. A drive along westbound 494, 19 hits in five minutes, most of them, locked down because most of them were businesses.

What Do I Do?

If you are a home user who has made the investment to go wireless, you should take the time investment to protect that network.

Both PC and Mac based systems have wireless capabilities and there are a variety of wireless options for each of them.

The first suggestion, obviously, is to read and follow the directions from the manufacturer on how to secure your wireless network. If those step-by-step instructions are too difficult to follow, head to the Internet and do a search using key phrases like "protect wireless," "secure wireless," etc. Need more? What follows is a guide, but keep in mind this should not replace the expertise of a computer professional, nor is it meant to be a substitute for professional advice. If you feel completely over your head, call someone to help you.

• Turn on encryption. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) / TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) is the preferred encryption, but if the access point does not support WPA then use WEP (Wired Equivalent Protection).

  WEP can be attacked cracked by a committed hacker and therefore should be used only if the Access Point does not support WPA / TKIP. The cracking of WEP keys will allow an attacker to gain access to a wireless network even though the network owner thinks that it has been secured with WEP encryption.

  Many older WEP devices will support WPA / TKIP through firmware (software installed into a specific piece of hardware) upgrades available from the Access Point manufacturer. You should be able to find upgrade instructions at the manufacturer's Web site ? some access points have utilities that allow you to easily upgrade.

• Enable MAC (Media Access Control) filtering to only allow the wireless network cards of the home owner access to their own wireless network. Every wireless device has what amounts to a serial number. You can instruct your Wireless Access Point to only allow access to specific MAC addresses. (Instructions: how to find your MAC address).

  Again, this filtering can be bypassed through the use of tools that can impersonate a valid user's MAC address (called MAC spoofing), but is a good measure to keep out the non-dedicated attacker.

• Change the default SSID or network identifier from the default to another name that will not divulge any personal information. Also, disable the broadcasting of the SSID to the area that the Access Point can be seen from (a feature that is available on nearly all AP's).

• Configure the wireless clients not to use the default ?Advanced? ?Wireless Network Connection Properties.? This default tells the network card to connect to any (Access Point or peer-to-peer) network when available. If peer-to-peer networking is not used, then only choose ?Access Point (infrastructure) networks only? with the ?Automatically connect to non-preferred networks? box unchecked. This will force the home user to select their own Access Point and not their neighbors.

• Install or enable desktop firewall protection. Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 has a firewall that provides some levels of protection. However, third party firewalls can provide more control and protection than the built-in XP SP2 firewall. By implementing desktop firewalls the ability for unknown users to access private information is greatly reduced.

  You can think of a desktop firewall as a second locked door to keep people out of your computer. The above steps secure the network, the firewall software protects the individual computer. note: Some Access points include a hardware firewall. This is to protect the access point, not the compter.

• Install and keep up-to-date antivirus programs on all computers. If you are connecting to the Internet from either wired or Wi-Fi connection antivirus is always a good idea and will protect the integrity of your data.

  While the above tips protect you from hackers, anti-virus software can protect your computer from other threats, including viruses that enter your computer through emails. The above steps do not protect people from viruses that enter the computer through emails.

• Keep your operating system and application patches up to date. Most of the attacks that are conducted by hackers exploit well known vulnerabilities that have patches available from the software manufacturer. Keeping computers patched will stop the majority of attacks that are conducted by ?script kiddies.?
• Turn your computer off when you are not using it. It seems simple, but a hacker can't access anything on your hard drive when your computer is off. This way, even if they get past your Access Point security, the only benefit they will get is access to the Internet.

By Jana Shortal, KARE 11 News.

(Copyright 2004 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)

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