Wireless

In the maritime business, Automated Identification Systems (AIS) are a big deal. They supplement information received by the marine radar system, are used for a wide variety of things - including ship-to-ship communication - and are relied upon each and every day. Unfortunately, the AIS can also be easily hacked in order to do some real damage, claims a group of researchers presenting at the Hack In The Box Conference currently taking place in Kuala Lumpur.

Wi-Fi has evolved over the years, and so have the techniques for securing your wireless network. An Internet search could unearth information that’s outdated and no longer secure or relevant, or that’s simply a myth.

We’ll separate the signal from the noise and show you the most current and effective means of securing your Wi-Fi network.

A Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee "has concluded passengers can safely use hand-held electronic devices, including those connected to onboard Wi-Fi systems, during all portions of flights on nearly all US airliners," the Wall Street Journal reported last night.

 If an Android device (phone or tablet) has ever logged on to a particular Wi-Fi network, then Google probably knows the Wi-Fi password. Considering how many Android devices there are, it is likely that Google can access most Wi-Fi passwords worldwide.

Recently IDC reported that 187 million Android phones were shipped in the second quarter of this year. That multiplies out to 748 million phones in 2013, a figure that does not include Android tablets.

Smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system are vulnerable to attacks that can extract the user credentials needed to log in to sensitive corporate networks, the company warned Monday.

The average American spends about seven hours a day looking at an electronic screen. With this much of a role in our daily lives, our electronic devices must be updated frequently with the newest technology to reflect usage patterns and make the user's experience more efficient and safe.

Two Ph.D. students in William & Mary's Department of Computer Science are doing just that. Hao Han and Nan Zheng recently received the Stephen K. Park Graduate Research Award to recognize their contributions to electronic efficiency and network security, respectively.

 The U.S. Department of Defense is building its own secure 4G network to improve collaboration among separate branches of the military, according to the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

If Google Glass isn't enough to get you worried about technology, how about a device that can see through walls using Wi-Fi? Researchers at MIT are experimenting with a system called Wi-Vi, which they say can track moving objects through walls by using the inexpensive, nearly ubiquitous wireless system. Wi-Vi could be built into a smartphone or a special handheld device and used in search-and-rescue missions and law enforcement, according to Dina Katabi, the MIT professor who developed Wi-Vi along with graduate student Fadel Adib.

iOS users may be far more susceptible to being hacked when using Wi-Fi hotspot connections than they imagined.

According to researchers at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany, Apple's default passwords for mobile hotspots, also known as pre-shared keys (PSKs), entail a mix of characters and numbers that are easily guessable.

While not mentioned during Apple's WWDC keynote, iOS 7 will support Hotspot 2.0, a relatively new Wi-Fi technology that allows compatible devices to seamlessly connect to compatible hotspots without user interaction.

The new feature is based on the Wi-Fi Alliance's Passpoint project, which looks to automate connections to certified hotspots quickly and securely. This means iOS device users will one day no longer have to search for, select, and manually connect to certain access points.