What are WEP and Wardriving?
The security of wireless home and small business networks remains a concern for many. Just like we use radio or television receivers to tune into station broadcasts, it’s almost as easy to pick up signals from a nearby wireless home network. Sure, credit card transactions on the Web may be secure, but imagine your neighbors spying on every email and instant message you send! A few years ago, some techies popularized the practice of wardriving to raise awareness of this vulnerability in WLANs. With the help of cheap, home-made equipment, “wardrivers” walked or motored through neighborhoods snooping the wireless network traffic emanating from nearby homes. Some wardrivers even logged their computers onto unsuspecting people’s home WLANs, essentially stealing free computer resources and Internet access. WEP is an important feature of wireless networks designed to improve security. WEP scrambles (technically speaking, encrypts) network traffic mathematically so that other computers can und
