What is “war driving” or ”war flying”?

Wireless networking is concerned with security threats such as resource access, integrity, and confidentiality. Every compatible unit within the propagation range has the ability to intercept wireless data transmission. If the encryption and other security protections that exist between wireless devices are insecure or weak, the sensitive existence of the information being communicated by wireless devices may be revealed. The attacker may change the revealed details and use them to his or her advantage. Wireless is vulnerable to immature technology, inadequate security practices, and other issues due to poor connectivity (Zhou, Cao, Dong & Lin, 2015). What is “wardriving” or ”war flying”?

Wardriving or war flying is the methods of transportation for moving around and recognizing various Access Points (Sebbar et al., 2016). This activity which is also known as access point discovery is meant to look for wireless networks.

Are you comfortable (or would you use) a wireless ”hot spot” to do computer work?

Hot spots are vulnerable to security breaches, and therefore I would not use them comfortable to do computer work. The email messages, passwords, and other information can be accessed by hackers since hot spots do no encrypt data. This simply mean that data in the PC and mobile devices using hot spots are not safe (Sebbar et al., 2016).

What safeguards might you use in accessing an unprotected (public) wireless communications?

Due to potential hackers, accessing wireless communications has been unsafe. But a person can use a VPN, SSL connections, and or turn off sharing to safeguard his or her sensitive information from hackers. Using a virtual private network will make the data to be strongly encrypted and cannot be tempted by the hackers. Since hackers are aware of the pattern people use passwords; one password for many sites, it is safe to ”Always Use HTTPS” on websites one visit on regular occasions. And lastly, it is safe to turn off sharing or control panel when connected to the internet at public places (Zhou, Cao, Dong & Lin, 2015).

Are you more at risk using a wireless connection via laptop or a connection via a smartphone?

Using wireless connection through either laptop or smartphone is not safe. But through innovation of an Android app known as Secure Wireless a person can get a notification about unsecured Wi-Fi and activate a VPN immediately to secure his or her device from being hijacked by hackers. Therefore, this makes smartphone safer than a laptop.

References

Sebbar, A., Boulahya, S. E., Mezzour, G., & Boulmalf, M. (2016, May). An empirical study of WIFI security and performance in Morocco-wardriving in Rabat. In Electrical and Information Technologies (ICEIT), 2016 International Conference on (pp. 362-367). IEEE.

Zhou, J., Cao, Z., Dong, X., & Lin, X. (2015). Security and privacy in cloud-assisted wireless wearable communications: Challenges, solutions, and future directions. IEEE Wireless Communications, 22(2), 136-144.