Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Advertisements
Advertisements

Wi-Fi hotspots not safe from hackers

Over the past few days, the City of Madison has started negotiations with AOL-Skycable to bring wireless Internet access to the local area. The extensive project will thrust Madison into a growing category of cities like Philadelphia that have recently gone wireless.

While the city trumpets the great advantages of a wireless network, there are also many risks involved. One of the biggest threats is determining the validity and legitimacy of the wireless network that you are logging onto.

A major problem of public hotspots in the past has been hackers setting up “doppelganger windows” or fake versions of the legitimate base station. These evil twins prompt users to enter their account information, just like the legitimate service, to access the wireless hotspot. If you are a new user, this usually entails providing a credit-card number. A more prominent example of this type of fraud is the recent rash of fake e-mails appearing to eminate from PayPal.

Advertisements

The e-mail follows the standard line of your account has been threatened by a hacker or there has been unusual activity within your account and PayPal needs you to login to the following link to renew, update and verify your information. The e-mail says failure to do any of these will result in cancellation of the account.

At the bottom of the e-mail, the following message is displayed: “Please follow the link below and renew your account information.” This is the point where a lot of people are fooled. Most people assume since the link works and it says it’s going to Paypal.com that it must be legitimate. Wrong assumption.

When you click on the link it takes you to a different address than the one indicated above. Users who login at this fake page will give their account information to whoever is behind the fake website. Those behind the fraudulent websites reconstruct a login screen or webpage that looks very similar to the website the user is familiar with.

This problem has already appeared at airports, Internet cafes and some universities. While the problem is real, it is not widespread. A few months ago, the story of evil twins stealing sensitive information was a hot news item for a couple of days. The topic appeared everywhere from CNN to India and the United Kingdom. A report by Internet Security Systems says that “there’s only one solution at the moment, until better WiFi security measures are introduced, all you can do is avoid any financial transactions or transmitting [of] sensitive data over a Wi-Fi hotspot.”

Countless students on the University of Wisconsin campus have accessed sensitive information like bank statements using Wireless WiscWorld, yet the occurrence of wireless fraud via this system has been low. The reason is that you cannot access bank statements and financial information unless you are accessing your particular financial institution’s website and this information is transmitted using various forms of encryption. From here it doesn’t matter if you logged into an “evil twin;” the encryption will prevent others from reading it.

Still, it’s a risk that is out there and needs to be on the minds of those who use wireless hotspots. Anyone with a credit card needs to be aware of where the card’s information is going and who has had access to it. You are more likely to have your credit-card information stolen when you give it to a clerk at a department store than you are if you log in to a wireless hotspot.

Madison is a perfect city for public WiFi. There are countless reasons why downtown should adopt a wireless system. Students are already reaping the benefits of wireless on campus and for those few freeloaders living next to university buildings, the benefits are even more bountiful. Just watch out for those evil twins.

Derek Montgomery ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.

Advertisements
Leave a Comment
Donate to The Badger Herald

Your donation will support the student journalists of University of Wisconsin-Madison. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Badger Herald

Comments (0)

All The Badger Herald Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *