Regarding the 'Public WiFi' SSID you always see being broadcast as an ad hoc network: http://www.nmrc.org/pub/advise/20060114.txt. In short, once you try and join one of those ad hoc networks your system then begins to rebroadcast that SSID. That is what I attribute to the constant 'Free Public Wifi' offerings I see constantly.
That means that someone was still 'Patient Zero' and they probably are used as honeypots to grab peoples personal info some of the time. But when a rash of them appeared here at work I went digging and that is when I found this info. This was released in 2006, along with this: http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2006/09/free_public_wif.html and was tested with XP SP2. Anyone happen to know if it was, in fact, updated with Service Pack 3 and Vista/Win 7? -----Original Message----- From: Murray Freeman [mailto:mfree...@alanet.org] Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 3:05 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: New Attack Cracks WPA in a Minute Another concer, but for people who don't have a WIFI, or who just like to mooch, is the fake "Public WIFI" that are 'default' and unsecured. I understand that these are used by unscrupulous people to capture personal info. Every now and then, I see one of those in my neighborhood. Murray -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 2:01 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: New Attack Cracks WPA in a Minute On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Jeff Brown<2jbr...@gmail.com> wrote: > Seriously, what are the odds someone in your neighborhood is lurking > around with the technology/desire to break into your home network? For a home network, the biggest threat is probabbly someone looking to mooch Internet access. Possibly a criminal looking to cover their tracks. (How would you like kiddie porn being traced to your IP address?) These aren't targeted attacks; anyone will do. For this sort of thing, the best countermeasure is to have a neighbor with a less secure access point. Same principle as car alarms: Car alarms don't make it impossible to steal your car; rather, they just make it easier to steal the car parked next to yours. Targeted attacks seem a lot less likely for home networks. Certainly, some people/organizations scan for networks to break in to for data mining purposes. I'd guess the most likely attack here would actually come from someone looking for corporate networks (they typically are of higher value). In this case, enacting sophisticated countermeasures -- like turning off SSID broadcast -- might (*might*) actually draw attention: Attackers scanning the area might see that as a sign that your network has something to hide. I suppose someone could go looking for home networks to steal credit card numbers, etc., that might be stored on home PCs, but that seems unlikely. It's high risk (requires local physical presence) and offers little reward, and there are much easier alternatives (spyware). -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
