Laptop Boy Scouts
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So class, for today's protection mechanism you'll need: a mouse, a loop of wire, a lock, a key, and a link. Sounds like MaGyver, huh?
This article on hot spot security gives you some software hints and covers most of the items I listed above. The exception is the loop of wire.
If you're working for some time at a place, especially a place that's traffic'd well, you might want to lock your computer to the desk or table. It will discourage iJacking or the chance that someone will walk by, grab your laptop and run. This is more likely in a cafe or Starbucks than an airport, but you never know.
The advice is good and it makes sense that most of the discovery and openness of Windows is rapidly becoming a liability. Even out here in the country, where I live and my nearest neighbor is nearly 1/4 mile away, I have keys on our wireless routers. I know it's not the best security, and I did get some complaints about making everyone have a key until a neighbor's router showed up on our computers. Makes you realize just how far away someone could be and reach your system.
As handy as all the capabilities are in wireless networking, as with anything else, they need to be secured and they should be turned off by default. Use them when you need them, but the rest of the time, try to be a bit more secure and limit access to your system.
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Two comments:
1. iJacking can be easier than I ever thought possible. One day my wife, son, and I were sitting in a Starbucks and I noticed a couple working at a nearby table, using a very nice laptop. At one point I heard them talk about going to get something to eat in the adjacent food court. They got up and left for quite awhile to get their dinner, leaving the laptop behind at Starbucks. I joked with my son that there was his new laptop for college. It would have been incredibly easy for anyone to walk away with a state-of-the-art, several-thousand-dollar laptop and be long gone before this couple even knew what happened.
2. We have two nice big shade trees outside our home and it's not uncommon to see delivery vehicles or other workers park there for relief from the Southern California heat. One day I noticed this guy in his car there for an extended period of time. I got suspicious and went out to "check the mailbox" and as I passed his car I saw he was typing away on his laptop. I went inside and unplugged our wireless router and took a surreptitious look out the window. He folded up his laptop and was gone in 30 seconds. So we were providing a 'hotspot'. We should have been selling some coffee too I guess. The same day I set up security for our wireless network. Lesson learned. Fortunately it appears he (and whoever else may have been using it) was just piggybacking on our wireless network with no malicious intent. But still, it was a bit creepy and is much better to have the security turned on. Note: one thing I learned when setting up the wireless network security is that if anyone on the network has a Mac, make sure when you type in the security password on the Mac that you preface it with a dollar sign ($). This was not easy to figure out and not at all apparent in the supposedly user-friendly Mac interface. Also (if I recall this correctly) when you set up the security on your router, make sure you use Key #1, not 2, 3, or 4 because a Mac defaults to using Key #1 and you cannot direct it to use 2,3, or 4.
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