Dr. Udell brings up an important point. There are
free tools available that allow anyone to scan
your wireless network. If your wireless network
doesn't have encryption, they can have all of
your passwords and access to everything on your
network within minutes.
To prevent that, you need to use encryption. The
older style was called WEP. Older computers can
only use this method - but it is an option on
newer computers. There are free tools that can
break into any WEP encrypted network in minutes.
There are Youtube videos that walk you through
the simple process. Anyone can do it. If you are
still using WEP, you should turn off your
computers until you can configure better
encryption.
The next encryption protocol was WPA. That was a
big step forward. It takes a little longer to
hack - like an hour or 2 - but still a simple
process anyone can do.
The current standard is WPA2 - this is much
better - it can also be hacked, but there are
simple ways to make it harder to hack:
If your router supports something called WPS (Wi-
Fi Protected Set-up), the WPS can be hacked in
minutes which then allows them to hack WPA2 in a
few minutes. So if you are using WPA2, you need
to make sure that WPS is turned off in your
router's configuration menu.
The longer the WPA2 password, the harder it is to
hack. You can use a password up to 63 characters
long. Including special characters makes it
harder.
While there, make sure to change the default
password to the router - the default passwords
are well known.
When I am sitting in a waiting room, I sometimes
just check to see how many wireless networks are
wide open. You would be surprised. Just recently,
I told my dentist that his network was wide open.
I showed him what I could see on my ipad from his
network and he was in shock.
Al Musella, DPM, Hewlett, NY, Musella@aol.com
