Jeff Duntemanns Drive-By Wi-Fi Guide

Chapter List

Chapter 11: The Problem of the Speckled Axe

Chapter 12: What Hackers Can Do and How You Can Thwart Them

Chapter 13: WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

Chapter 14: Setting Up Security

Part Overview

There's a very weird disconnect in the Wi-Fi world about security. Everyone I talk to about Wi-Fi networking seems to be in a state of permanent panic about the prospect of hackers breaking into their networks and wreaking havoc-and yet I have gathered statistics personally, by going out into the field and wardriving, as I'll explain in Chapter 18, that almost 75% of the Wi-Fi networks in my area have no security protection on them whatsoever.

I've been gutsy enough to actually ask a couple of people who have unprotected networks why they don't turn on encryption to protect themselves against hackers. The answers fall into two general categories:

1. What's encryption?

2. What's a hacker?

So the real problem is that those few who know anything at all about wireless security are panicking, and everybody else is unaware of the threat.

In this part of the book, I want to pull both ends toward the middle. There really isn't any reason to panic-but the threat from hackers is real and has to be faced. In the following chapters I'll explain what hackers do, why wireless networks are uniquely vulnerable to them, and how you can protect your network, your data, and (most significantly) your reputation, against those who would ride into your home or office on a microwave beam.