Posted: 25th Feb, 2008 By: MarkJ
Mark Brooks, marketing director at Internet and computer security company Global Security One (GSEC1), has called on consumers to lock the door on Internet crime by securing their wireless networks:
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While the proposals to tackle illegal file sharing will be unpopular with ISPs and could, in practice, be unworkable (how are they policed?), they do highlight an important issue about businesses and consumers protecting their wireless network.
How many times have you turned on your laptop, only to be greeted by a completely open wireless networks? Even those protected by WEP security can be cracked in under a minute by experts. Wi-Fi highjacking, phishing and drive by pharming - where DNS weaknesses are exploited - are all on the rise.
Legislation is unlikely to help with these internet threats and some ISPs will be more vigilant than others to tackle illegal file sharing. Consumers need to lock the door on internet crime by securing their wireless networks.
Consumers understand the importance of wireless security, but weaknesses are often exploited in the rush to get online. Also, most anti-virus and online banking security is software based, which is time consuming to administrate and still open to attack. The solution is to take a hardware-based approach, using more secure wireless standards than WEP, such as WPA2."
In reality unsecured wireless networks are unlikely to have a major impact on P2P file sharing piracy, although the general advice is correct. Unfortunately many people are still using older wireless routers and modems that do not fully support the latest encryption standards, solving that side of the problem will take time, money and is ultimately up to the end-user.