FBI Teaches Lesson In How To Break Into Wi-Fi Networks

by Humphrey Cheung Networking Pipeline, 7 Apr 2005 Millions of wireless access points are spread across the US and the world. About 70% percent of these access points are unprotected -- wide open to access by anyone who happens to drive by. The other 30% are protected by Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and a small handful are protected by the new Wi-Fi Protected Access standard. At a recent Information Systems Security Association meeting in Los Angeles, a team of FBI agents demonstrated current WEP-cracking techniques and broke a 128 bit WEP key in about three minutes. Read the article