Hackers gear up for International War Driving Day - August 31st

Source: SNP

L33tdawg: What a coincidence. That's Malaysia's National Day as well. What better excuse to go out war driving when you've got a public holiday to go with it as well! *grin*

Information technology managers may want to pay close attention to Red Deer, Alberta, on Aug. 31, which has been targeted by hackers for a "wardriving" day.

In what is being billed as the first Alberta International Wardriving Day, hackers armed with laptop computers outfitted with wireless networking gear and global positioning systems will drive around Red Deer looking for unprotected wireless computer networks.

The aim of the game — organizers are calling it a "hobby" — is to see which hacker can find the most wireless networks in one day.

Also called "net stumbling," the game grew out of an earlier activity called "war dialing," popularized by the 1983 movie War Games. That involved dialing software, which was used to dial many phone numbers automatically, looking for lines that are answered by modems.

The "wardriving" hackers are looking for wireless systems based on a standard called 802.11b, which has become very popular in both offices and homes where computers are networked. Also called WiFi, the high-frequency networks have an effective range of about 30 metres but can extend much further.

WiFi has become popular as part of corporate local-area networks (LANs), allowing employees with laptops to go from office to office without having to plug their machines into different Ethernet outlets.