This paper examines the security challenges facing Wi-Fi networks, with a focus on the widespread problem of "piggybacking" — unauthorized use of another person's wireless broadband connection. It outlines the technical vulnerabilities that make wireless networks difficult to secure, surveys arguments both for and against piggybacking, and reviews early legislative efforts in New York and California to regulate unsecured wireless access. The paper concludes that because legal solutions are impractical and largely absent, technology itself must ultimately be the primary mechanism for restricting wireless network access to authorized users.
Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is a term for a high-frequency wireless local area network. It allows home and office users to create wireless local networks that connect two or more computers to each other and to a faster Internet connection. A person with a Wi-Fi enabled device can connect to the Internet when located close to an access point. The top reasons businesses and individuals are turning to Wi-Fi networks are to improve productivity through mobility, to provide access in locations that cannot be wired, and to deploy LAN connectivity more easily and cost-effectively (Savvas, 2006). However, as this paper will discuss, these advantages come at a cost — most notably the difficulty of preventing unwanted, shared wireless access.
Wi-Fi networks are challenged by issues related to performance, interference, and immature standards. Security, however, is by far the largest concern for users. In a cabled network environment, a person must obtain physical access to a network outlet in order to gain access to the network. Access to a wireless network, on the other hand, is available throughout the operating area of the wireless base station, which may extend up to several hundred feet. The possibility of unauthorized access is therefore a serious problem, because anyone with a wireless data interface can gain access to the shared network (Issues with wireless networking, 2001). There is no foolproof way to prevent unauthorized access, and it is fairly easy to accomplish.
Home users often fail to make any effort to secure their wireless networks. More sophisticated businesses attempt measures such as using encryption standards and suppressing the access point's Service Set Identifier (SSID) broadcast so that only computers with known addresses can join the network. Even these attempts, however, have flaws that leave wireless networks compromised (WiFi).
Experts estimated that as much as eighty percent of United States residential Wireless Local Area Networks would be classified as unsecured in 2007. Piggybackers take advantage of these open networks to gain free Internet access by using the owner's bandwidth, usually without the owner's knowledge. There were, at the time, no laws or regulations to address this practice unless the piggybacker broke other laws related to computer use in the process. Even if such laws existed, prosecution would be difficult in many circumstances because laptops often automatically connect to open networks, making it hard to prove whether access was intentional (Ethical dilemmas of unsecured wireless networks).
"Ethical debate over legitimacy of piggybacking"
"New York and California laws targeting Wi-Fi piggybacking"
Marriott, M. (2006, March 5). Hey neighbor, stop piggybacking on my wireless. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/technology/05wireless.html
Savvas, A. (2006, July 10). IT firms admit struggle to secure wireless LANs. ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved from http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/07/10/216815/it-firms-admit-struggle-to-secure-wireless-lans.htm
WiFi. Retrieved from
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