Securing Open Wireless Networks: Risks And Effective Protection Strategies

Business owners don't walk away from their buildings at night and leave the doors wide open. But quite a few are doing something that could become nearly as dangerous: Leaving wireless networks wide open to anyone passing by with a portable . . . Business owners don't walk away from their buildings at night and leave the doors wide open. But quite a few are doing something that could become nearly as dangerous: Leaving wireless networks wide open to anyone passing by with a portable computer and less than $100 worth of hardware needed to connect to the system. "We do our war driving and we still come across access points that are not encrypted," says Keith D'Sousa, a senior manager of risk and advisory services at consulting firm KPMG LLP in Toronto.

War driving involves touring cities with equipment that can sniff out a company's unprotected wireless network access points. It's a hobby of security consultants and, more frightening, computer hackers and people looking for free Internet access. The fact that it still turns up lots of open doors into corporate networks shows many businesses still aren't paying enough attention to wireless local-area network (LAN) security.

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