*disclaimer: I do not condone hacking other people’s wireless network. This was done for educational purpose.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. [byvolce] and its affiliates accept no liability for providing this information. Please only use to test configurations on your own equipment. Accessing WIFI networks that do not belong to you is ILLEGAL.  -from thew0rd (though it applies to this post)

If you’re nerdy like me, you have probably seen articles on WEP hacking and how to do so. It may seem daunting when you first look at it (I mean all those scripts to type into terminal, come on!), but I can honestly say that it is really weak and does not require a genius or a nerd, or even a grown up really, to hack into a WEP protected router. All you need is to be able to follow direction. You probably won’t even need perseverance.

How easy is it? Broken on the first try in less than an hour by a high school student. You don’t even need fancy tools or to waste money. All you need is a computer with wifi.

What how????!

Backtrack and the first search result on google will do the rest (the 3rd result for the written instructions).

Still not scared enough? Well the next step one could do is then hack into the router system of the unsuspecting network. This is made even easier by the fact that these days dsl and cable companies gives you a router (most likely 2wire) as part of the modem. If you’re lucky a quick google search for the default router system password will allow you to get in. This will allow you to do a number of things

• Block internet from the router owner.
• Lock them out of their own router.
• Steal some information.
• Intercept packets (of information(like credit cards)), if you’re savvy enough (I’m not, don’t worry).
• Profit!

Remember, not only is this illegal, but also against morality . How would you feel if some one you don’t know is on your network? For all you know they can be stealing your credit card this second.

Now what can you do about this?

Well the first and most obvious is to change your password encryption to something more secure like WPA, WPA PSK, WPA2 and etc. instead of the incredibly outdated WEP. Basically, if it’s WPA it’s going to be more secure. of course like anything, it can still be hacked. But at least you will have some peace of mind knowing that high schoolers can’t hack into it, as easily (have not tried). Though there is some limitations, if you have a computer running Win98 or some kind of old computer, it won’t have native WPA support. Though it is still possible via extensive hacks.

Disable SSID broadcasting. This will hide your network name from (some/most) network finder thus making your network less of a target. You can still get into your network by entering the SSID (the network name) manually.

Use MAC address filtering. MAC address are basically like the license plate of your car (Though it’s harder to change and if I may recall right, illegal to change). This option will stop any wifi user without an allowed MAC address to access the network. It’s harder to maintain, especially because you will have to enter all of your devices’ MAC address.

Due to the diverse nature of routers, I can’t offer you specific tutorials on how to do so on your router. Though I may be able to help if you ask. There’s probably still many more ways to thwart hackers, but these are probably the easiest one for the casual network owner.

And of course if you can’t get in to your router already, remember, there’s always that little hardware reset switch that will reset all the passwords so you can get back in

Share your thoughts below

Popularity: 16% [?]