Having the ability to go wireless in your home or at the office is a great feature to have. The freedom to roam your house from room to room, or even sit under the palm tree of your garden on a hot sunny day, proves there's no going back from wireless. Not only is it the freedom to be mobile, but also leaving your house wired free, and not having to route cables through drilled walls, shows another area where wireless is too good to miss out on. However, because of the nature of the technology, wireless has a number of security issues we must be aware of.
A neighbour, hacker or someone just by your home can easily detect your wireless signals and attempt to connect to your wireless access point. This is because wireless uses radio frequency and data travels through the air, though they do not need physical access to your router.
So let's get to the point. How bad could it be not implementing any wireless security?
The common stressing points we hear everyday regarding wireless security is the ability that an evil doer can easily sniff data, coming and going to your wireless access point. Also they will have the ability to use your router to browse the web just as you do… using your bandwidth.
It doesn't really sound that bad… Does it?
Well how about if your neighbours or anyone on the street outside your home were using your wireless access point and taking part in illegal downloads, visiting illegal websites and generally using the web for criminal activity. Who do you think would get the blame? When you have the FBI busting through your door, and you're quick to think your children are not as innocent as they claim to be, it may be a mountain for you to climb out of at this point.
The illegal downloads and criminal activity that was occurring from the next house on, was all under your ID. They were using your access point which from the ISP point of view was coming from your home.
To add to this, in a couple of months time when your bank statement arrives through the door showing you spent £3000 on a new TV, as well as purchasing a set of Golf clubs, it may just all be too late by then. A hacker could have easily sat outside your home and sniffed your bank details or any other confidential details you may have used when online, all from the comfort of their car or home. All they need is a wireless laptop to do this, and sit within a range of your wireless router, in other words somewhere outside your house!
Now this also goes for businesses with wireless access points as well and not just for home users. In fact it is so much more crucial for businesses because a hacker can break into their network via the access point, hacking into company confidential data!
Therefore wireless security today is crucial for all the reasons above. Identity theft today is on the rise, and hackers will go the distance looking for insecure wireless access points. For this reason you should take the time and ensure you have a secure wireless network.
