How Many Wireless Networks Are Still Vulnerable to Hackers?
INTRODUCTION Wireless networks are prevalent across the United Kingdom, both in corporate and home environments. Typically corporate wireless systems will be installed and configured by IT professionals, who will utilise various security mechanisms to secure against unauthorised access. The problem however arises with home wireless networks, which are installed and configured by people who may have limited technical knowledge. This can result in the default settings being used, where the router is plugged in, switched on and left. Internet Service Providers have consequently changed the default configuration of the wireless routers they supply to their customers in order to mitigate this, however it is debatable whether some of the configurations are entirely secure. To evaluate what percentage of wireless networks were still vulnerable to attack, war driving software was run on the author’s mobile phone, running Android 2.2 for three days, recording wireless networks everywhere he wen
