Can someone connect to the internet through a secured wireless without a password?

Question

I've always wanted to ask this question!

Would be very appreciative if you could answer this question! :)

Thanks

Nicole

Answer 1

The answer is yes, an attacker can take advantage of encryption weaknesses to find your encryption key.

Encryption using WEP is especially risky because it has been effectively broken, there are scenarios where an attacker can connect to a secured wireless access point within 10 minutes by building statistics (and often generating traffic). It is more likely that this process will take anywhere from 10-60 minutes.

Encryption using WPA/WPA2 is slightly better, but remember that encryption is temporal. Several years from now it could be broken, and some of the same weaknesses in WEP exist for WPA if you do not use a strong password.

Attackers can also send Wireless signals over several miles, so they don't even have to be close to you. In 2001, researchers were able to send wireless signals over 5 miles, and more recently they have been able to send signals over 50 miles. Of course it would be harder for them to break your wireless if its secured because they need to be close in order to hear what your access point says in response.

The lesson: WPA is good enough (for now).

Answer 2

The idea of securing the wireless router is to shut out unwanted users, so if it's properly set up with a secure password it shouldn't be a problem.

However, physical security's important too. If someone can walk up and plug in an Ethernet cable to your router, they will totally bypass the wireless security.

Answer 3

I can pick up 3 wireless networks in range and tried to connect to them and every one asks me for password and wep key

Answer 4

Probably not, but there are plenty of unsecured hotspots to be found.

Answer 5

I did not learn about it in school.

Answer 6

no