Oops!
- TAGS:DHCP, Wi-Fi
- IT TOPICS:Networking, Security
Pilot fish is at his tax consultant's office, and some questions come up that require Internet access for him to answer. "So I connected to the first unsecured wireless network I found and took care of business," says fish.
"Then I realized that the connection I used was also the strongest one in the list, and thus most likely that of my tax consultant."
He points this out to the consultant, then pokes around a little more. Turns out that the router isn't merely unencrypted. Fish also discovers that the administrative username and password are set to the defaults, so getting control of the router is easy.
He logs in, checks the DHCP table and is able to connect to his tax consultant's computer and see all her files.
And he spots two additional people using the Wi-Fi connection -- and the tax consultant has no idea who they are.
"She was baffled," fish says, "until she remembered that her local cable company had replaced her faulty router three months prior -- leaving her business data totally vulnerable."
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