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Someone who breaks into computer network
via a wireless link from outside a building, particularly across wi-fi
connections. Relying on the fact that most companies using wireless
technology rarely secure or encrypt their connections, would- be
bandwidth thieves and intruders can simply walk or drive through likely
looking parts of town armed with a laptop and a suitable wireless data card,
waiting for their equipment to detect a signal from an exposed network. Many
such intrusions are moderately harmless and involve nothing more sinister
than the borrowing of free, high-speed internet connections by people who
need to check their e-mail on the move. Unsurprisingly,
however, not all drive-by hackers are good citizens, and there are more
worrying tales of people stealing or corrupting data. Some estimates in 2002
suggested that as many as 60% of corporate wi-fi networks were
unsecured from outside attacks of this kind. Drive-by hacking is also known
as wardriving (or, if the attacker is on a bicycle, war-pedalling) and has
been made much easier by the emergence of warchalking. |
