Brussels Belgium makes an easy target for wireless hackers
Source: SNP
Emmera, an independent Belgian company specialized in IT security, conducted "ethical war-driving" tours in Brussels (Belgium). The results of the study are self-speaking : on 304 wireless LAN's detected, 200 infrastructures were deployed without using any encryption method to protect their data. It would really be an easy task for a pirate to penetrate these "open" networks...
As a new, seducing and easy to install technology, « Wireless » conquered numerous CEO’s who wanted to upgrade the working comfort of their associates. No more need for miles of cables, necessary to install an efficient network : simple radio-waves, connected by small send-receivers installed on each PC, create an “internal” and thus more efficient network. But, those waves can not be contained in a defined space, and are not limited to the four walls of your “wireless-using” business location. That is what the specialised independent company Emmera noticed whilst taking a walk through Brussels…
We walked through Brussels’ streets, armed with a PC capable of capturing those waves with a wireless card, for public sale, according to Maxime Rapaille, delegated administrator of Emmera, about a research project performed by his services between November 2002 and January 2003. The numbers astonished us! From the 304 detected “wireless” networks during our “walk” (red. : there are hundreds of companies using them in Brussels), only 104 of them use some kind of security system. They used encryption to codify their data. Some finding indeed, when you know how easy it would be for anyone to intrude the network of businesses, simply by walking the streets, like the Emmera specialists did. A pirate would just have to stop in front of an office, armed with a laptop or PDA with ad hoc network-card, to penetrate the network, continues Maxime Rapaille. Mostly, the PC-pirates would connect immediately. Unnecessary to precise that anyone having bad intentions, would be able to -easily- spy on the company, discover passwords or other access systems…
