home wireless threats

Clarifications

If your home network is insecure, and I am connecting to it, chances are that I am doing some harmless network surfing, or checking my email. BUT, if I am not, and I do something illegal (certain sites, certain words I could post, etc) and the cops trace back to the IP address of your router, its YOU who will have to defend yourself.

Another issue is that you might have (especially if you are like 99% of computer users and have Windows loaded) an unsecure share on your PC, like c$. There may be bits that you don't want read off of your drive.

I'm sure there are many things hackers and criminals can do to exploit an open network. Best thing you can do is lock it down, do not broadcast your SSID, use encryption and enable MAC filtering. Of course nothing is fool proof but a hacker much like a burglar is going to look for an easy open door first rather than trying to break down one that is deadbolted.

1) Somebody accessing illegal content from my network (see dateline nbc 'to catch a predator'). I don't want my IP address on anybody's search warrant.

2) Somebody browsing my personal data on my Windows boxes. There's nothing bad, but there's probably enough for identity theft.

3) Somebody tampering with router/network settings... e.g. making up arbitrary IP addresses in Router, then changing password for router.

4) Someone actively monitoring my network with a sniffer, watching all the things I do.

5) Someone performing a man-in-the middle attack...a more damaging attack than #4.

Most popular is simply somebody using somebody's bandwidth and viewing people's shared data on PCs.