Identity thieves can lurk at Wi-Fi spots

R.A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Tue Feb 8 09:02:42 PST 2005


<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-02-06-evil-twin-usat_x.htm>

USA Today



Identity thieves can lurk at Wi-Fi spots
 By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO - Coffee shop Web surfers beware: An evil twin may be lurking
near your favorite wireless hotspot.

Thieves are using wireless devices to impersonate legitimate Internet
access points to steal credit card numbers and other personal information,
security experts warn.

So-called evil-twin attacks don't require technical expertise. Anyone armed
with a wireless laptop and software widely available on the Internet can
broadcast a radio signal that overpowers the hot spot.
  How to avoid an 'evil twin'?? Install personal firewall and security
patches. Use hot spots for Web surfing only. Enter passwords only into Web
sites that include an SSL key at bottom right. Turn off or remove wireless
card if you are not using a hot spot. Avoid hot spots where it's difficult
to tell who's connected, such as at hotels and airport clubs. If hot spot
is not working properly, assume password is compromised. Change password
and report incident to hot spot provider. Do not use insecure applications
such as e-mail instant messaging while at hot spots.

 Source: AirDefense Then, masquerading as the real thing, they view the
activities of wireless users within several hundred feet of the hot spot.

"It could be someone sitting next to you on a plane or in a parking lot
across the street from a coffee shop," says Jon Green, director of
technical marketing at Aruba Wireless Networks, which makes
radio-wave-scanning equipment that detects and shuts down bogus hot spots.

"Wireless networks are wide open," says Steve Lewack, director of
technology services for Columbus Regional Medical Center in Columbus, Ga.

The facility uses software and sensors to monitor 480 wireless devices used
by medical personnel at 110 access points. Last month, it stopped about 120
attempts to steal financial information from medical personnel and patients
- double the number of incidents from a few months earlier.

The recent surge in evil-twin attacks parallels phishing scams - fraudulent
e-mail messages designed to trick consumers into divulging personal
information. Though the problem is in its infancy, it has caught the
attention of some businesses heavily dependent on wireless communications.

But most consumers aren't aware of the threat, security expert Green says.

Wi-Fi, or wireless Internet, sends Web pages via radio waves. Hot spots are
an area within range of a Wi-Fi antenna.

As the technology has grown - there are now about 20,000 hot spots in the
USA, up from 12,000 a year ago - so too have security concerns. Anil
Khatod, CEO of AirDefense, a maker of software and sensors, estimates
break-ins number in the hundreds each month in the USA.

Companies employing hundreds of people with wireless laptops are especially
vulnerable to evil-twin scams. When a worker's information is filched, it
can expose a corporate network.

"It presents a serious, hidden danger to Web users," says Phil Nobles, a
wireless-security expert at Cranfield University in England who has
researched the threat. "It's hard to nab the perpetrator, and the victim
has no idea what happened."

-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





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