Turn on, don't tune out

Posted on 6 Nov 2009 at 14:13

I recently stumbled on a very good reason why you should protect your wireless network and change your router's default administration password.

This isn't about your network being misused or your computers being hacked from within, although both are very important.

What this is about is the potential for a very embarrassing situation. Visiting my parents recently, I needed to log on to their wireless network from my phone to look up something online. Searching the wireless networks available, I found their sensibly named, fully protected network, some other secured networks and one unsecured network with a, shall we say, fruity-sounding name. And then some.

In fact, replacing the rude words with stars, the name of the network was, '****** **** **** ****'. Essentially, it was the rudest parts of the Profanisaurus. The words were such that a Tourette-suffering dock worker would have blushed at the expletive-heavy workout.

The problem, it turns out, is that the network belongs to next-door. My parents' neighbours had been in such a hurry to turn on their new router they hadn't bothered with any of its security. At some point, someone had logged on, changed the network name to something incredibly offensive and then altered the administrator password on the router to prevent the hijacked network being renamed.

Sadly, said neighbour doesn't seem to understand how to reset the router to its default settings so that they can configure security and pick a new network name, despite some offers of help. The offensive network name still stands proud (and unprintable) for all to see. I think that's a lesson to us all: network security really is a necessity, not a luxury.

Author: David Ludlow

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