Security News > 2004 > September > German hacker finds open Wi-Fi networks in Manila

http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=10201 By Erwin Lemuel Oliva INQ7.net Sept 10, 2004 DRIVING through the central business district of Makati all the way to Malate in Manila, a German whitehat hacker discovered that only 15 of the 66 wireless access points or wireless local area networks located in these two areas were "encrypted." "The encyrption levels of these access points were not even secure," said the German whitehat hacker known as Van Hauser. Van Hauser was in Manila as one of the experts invited to the third annual Philippine Information Technology Security Conference. Showing the lack of security in the wireless local area networks (WLAN) of corporate firms in the Philippines, Van Hauser disclosed that the "wardriving" he conducted from Makati to Malate easily identified WLANs that were open to anyone armed with a laptop and software who wanted to detect wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) hotspots. Wardriving is the process of scanning for wireless access points while driving by certain areas known to have such WLANs, said Van Hauser. Van Hauser said malicious hackers can use open WLANs to launch attacks. But in cases where open WLANs are connected to other networks, hackers would likely access these networks and do more damage. "If it is connected to other networks, then it becomes more interesting for hackers," said Van Hauser. In his wardriving exercise, Van Hauser was able to detect the "open" WLANs of prominent firms located in Makati. He, however, declined to name these companies. "Wardriving is not hacking. I was just scanning for access points in a certain area," he stressed. Wardriving, however, is now being used by malicious hackers to locate public access points to launch attacks. Van Hauser, 29, has been doing ethical hacking for various high-profile companies in Germany. He also works part-time for Suse Linux. _________________________________________ Donate online for the Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes - http://www.c4i.org/ethan.html

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