The wireless craze is becoming a boon to the devious. Signals sent and received by logged-on computers radiate throughout the surrounding area, allowing people with a laptop and illicit (but free) downloadable software to record the transmissions of dozens of computers at once. “It’s easy to do,” says Mike Outmesguine, a cyber-crime adviser to the FBI based in Agoura Hills, California. “People think e-mail is safe, but it’s not in a wireless environment.” A favorite trick of the newbie hackers, he says, is impersonating victims with e-mailed letters of resignation to their bosses.
One reason for the hacking upsurge is that Wi-Fi defense systems are not as sophisticated as wired-network protection, which are the result of many years of improvement. And many hackers are attracted to Wi-Fi hacking due to the relative ease of obtaining credit-card and bank details. A lot of newcomers include recycled spammers, often with little hacking experience. Private investigators are also joining the fray. Jean Schmitt, a Paris-based board member of the World Association of Detectives, says illegal Wi-Fi spying is becoming big because it doesn’t demand high-level hacking skills and PIs can remain out of sight. Crimes committed on someone else’s network are “essentially untraceable” to the culprit, says Greg Donewar, until recently a digital forensics specialist with the West Virginia State Police. Antennas that capture signals from more than a kilometer away are helping criminals enjoy that anonymity from home. A South African living in Bangkok, who asked to not be named, says that this practice, called “hopping” or “bouncing,” helps him steal large amounts of money in credit-card scams without law-enforcement troubles. “I’m not going to use my home ADSL [fixed-wire] line,” he says. The convenience of wireless Internet surfing clearly has its downside.
