The Essentials of Wireless SecurityWritten by Daniel Robson
With wireless networks proliferating it is becoming more important than ever that sufficient security measures are put in place. And yet many people, especially those new to technology or computers in general, are just not aware of dangers of not properly securing a wireless network.Typically ‘normal’ users of products such as wireless routers dismiss any security concerns as only really being applicable to commercial concerns. After all, who would be interested in a small local set-up of two, maybe three computers? You may be surprised. There are many horror stories circulating about unsecured wireless networks, and unfortunately there is a grain of truth in most of them. The most common form that a danger to a private network can take is known as variously as ‘War-driving’, ‘war-walking’, ‘war-flying’ or ‘war-chalking.’ This involves an unscrupulous person literally driving, walking or even flying around in an attempt to find an unsecured wireless network. Once one is found a nearby wall is commonly ‘chalked’, indicating to any other passer-by presence of a ripe target. The name itself is taken from act of ‘war-dialling’, a term coined by film ‘WarGames’, where random telephone numbers were dialled in hope of finding a computer on other end of line. If a network is found, then potentialconsequences can range from fairly innocuous to criminal. At very lowest level a third-party can connect to network and access Internet connection from router. If legitimate owner of network is on a capped service this can consume a considerable chunk of their bandwidth, leading to extra charges being levied for resources which they never realised were being used. Of far more consequence are some of uses to which this stolen bandwidth could be put. In a worst case example a paedophile cruising around area could spot chalk marking and connect to compromised network. Without knowledge of network owners they could connect to any manner of illegal sites, with no record of their passing traceable to them. Because trail would stop cold at door of person who has provided them with free access.
| | Computer Security - What Exactly Is It?Written by Ciontescu Molie
Although term 'computer security' is used a lot, content of a computer is actually vulnerable to only a few risks unless computer is connected to others on a network. As use of computer networks (especially Internet) has increased dramatically during past few years, term computer security is now used to describe issues referring to networked use of computers and their resources. The major technical areas of computer security are confidentiality, integrity and authentication/availability. - Confidentiality, also known as secrecy or privacy, means that information you own cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties. Breaches of confidentiality range from embarrassing to disastrous. - Integrity means that your information is protected against unauthorized changes that are undetectable to authorized users. The integrity of databases and other resources are usually compromised through hacking. - Authentication means that an user is who he claims to be. - Availability means that resources are accessible by authorized parties. Examples of availability attacks are 'denial of service' attacks. Other important things that computer security professionals are concerned about are access control and nonrepudiation. Access control refer not only to fact that users can only access resources and services they are entitled to, but also to fact that they can't be denied to access resources they legitimately expect. Nonrepudiation means that a person who sends a message cannot deny he sent it and vice versa.
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