4 Secrets Wireless Hackers Don't Want You to Know!

You're using a wireless access point that has
encryption so you're safe, right? Wrong!
Hackers want you to believe that you are
protected so you will remain vulnerable to
their attacks. Here are 4 things that wireless
hackers hope you won't find out, otherwise
they might not be able to break into your
network and/or COMPUTER:
1. WEP encryption is useless for protecting
your wireless network. WEP is easily cracked
within minutes and only provides users with
a false sense of security.
Even a mediocre hacker can defeat Wired
Equivalent Privacy (WEP)-based security in a
matter of minutes, making it essentially
useless as a protection mechanism. Many
people set their wireless routers up years ago
and have never bothered to change their
wireless encryption from WEP to the newer
and stronger WPA2 security. Updating your
router to WPA2 is a fairly simple process.
Visit your wireless router MANUFACTURER'S
website for instructions.
2. Using your wireless router's MAC filter to
prevent unauthorized devices from joining
your network is ineffective and easily
defeated.
Every piece of IP-based hardware, whether
it's a computer, game system, PRINTER, etc,
has a unique hard-coded MAC address in its
network interface. Many routers will allow
you to permit or deny network access based
on a device's MAC address. The wireless
router inspects the MAC address of the
network device requesting access and
compares it your list of permitted or denied
MACs. This sounds like a great security
mechanism but the problem is that hackers
can "spoof" or forge a fake MAC address that
matches an approved one. All they need to
do is use a wireless packet capture
PROGRAM to sniff (eavesdrop) on the
wireless traffic and see which MAC addresses
are traversing the network. They can then set
their MAC address to match one of that is
allowed and join the network.
3. Disabling your wireless router's remote
ADMINISTRATIONfeature can be a very
effective measure to prevent a hacker from
taking over your wireless network.
Many wireless routers have a setting that
allows you to administer the router via a
wireless connection. This means that you can
access all of the routers security settings and
other features without having to be on a
COMPUTER that is plugged into the router
using an Ethernet CABLE. While this is
convenient for being able to administer the
router remotely, it also provides another
point of entry for the hacker to get to your
security settings and change them to
something a little more hacker friendly.
Many people never change the factory
default admin passwords to their wireless
router which makes things even easier for
the hacker. I recommend turning the "allow
admin via wireless" feature off so only
someone with a physical connection to the
network can attempt to administer the
wireless router settings.
4. If you use public hotspots you are an easy
target for man-in-the-middle and session
hijacking attacks.
Hackers can use tools like Firesheep and
AirJack to perform "man-in-the-middle"
attacks where they insert themselves into the
wireless conversation between sender and
receiver. Once they have successfully
inserted themselves into the line of
communications, they can harvest your
ACCOUNT passwords, read your e-mail, view
your IMs, etc. They can even use tools such
as SSL Strip to obtain passwords for secure
websites that you visit. I recommend using a
commercial VPN service provider to protect
all of your traffic when you are using wi-fi
networks. Costs range from $7 and up per
month. A secure VPN provides an additional
layer of security that is extremely difficult to
defeat. Unless the hacker is extremely
determined they will most likely move on and
try an easier targe