Earlier this year, I did a survey of wireless networks in the small town where I live. The results weren’t at all surprising to me – well over 400 wifi networks exist, and roughly one-third of these are insecure.
No big deal, you say? “I don’t care if someone borrows my wifi access. I trust my neighbors.” What if it wasn’t your neighbor? What if it was someone looking to steal your personal information? Or a virtual stalker?
What most people fail to realize is that wireless networks can reach much further than they think. With the proper equipment, wireless networks powered by today’s home routers can be accessed from up to a quarter mile or more away. When wireless networks aren’t secured, there are numerous evil deeds that a prankster or malicious attacker could perform – everything from making images on websites appear upside-down as you browse, to watching what sites you visit, to stealing your private information.
Over the course of the next few posts I’ll be going into detail on these types of attacks – how they are performed, what damage can be done, and how to easily protect yourself.
Posted in Security, Wireless Security.
Tagged with how to, Security, wifi, wireless.
By Tyler Golden
– July 13, 2009
In an effort to consolidate all my online stuff, I’ve begun moving everything to one new domain name – tylergolden.net I am merging my work blog and personal blog into one, still titled Caffeine Blur. Hopefully when I’m done this site will be the go-to place to get interact with me online.
Posted in Site News.
Tagged with blog, site news, wordpress.
By Tyler Golden
– June 30, 2009
A few quick steps to secure your Windows computer. These steps would prevent about 75% of the problems I see in home computers.
- Set a password on all user accounts, including the hidden ‘administrator’ account. On Windows XP, this can be done in the ‘Users’ area in the Control Panel.
- Learn how your virus protection works. Whether you use free antivirus software, or the best software money can buy – if you don’t make an effort to understand how it works, at least at a basic level, it won’t be much help to you.
- Run ‘Windows Update’ once every month, near the middle of the month. Microsoft releases updates on the second Tuesday of every month, and keeping your computer up-to-date will prevent many common security issues.
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Hope this is helpful. I’ll be trying to add new tips every couple of days.
Posted in Security.
Tagged with computers, how to, Security, viruses.
By Tyler Golden
– April 20, 2009
This is an exciting time for the internet, and technology in general. Technology is allowing us to communicate in ways never (ok, rarely) imagined 50 years ago.
That being said, I’m bothered by the lack of security talk I’m seeing around new technology. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that we’re now able to communicate more openly than ever before, but sometimes I think we’re going just a little too far. Take the recent Twitter problems, for example. I’m specifically referring to the phishing scams that have been taking place, not the account break-ins that recently occurred. This problem only spread because so many users blindly trusted email links and third party apps with their account information. Similar problems seem to have been popping up across the net lately; in World of Warcraft in the form of malicious add-ons stealing account info, and in MySpace and Facebook in the form of fake login sites for example.
There is no easy solution. I propose that we can start to tackle this problem in three areas:
- 1. Implementing security by design, not by necessity.
- 2. End-User Education.
- 3. Encouraging open-source development.
That’s enough ranting on this subject for now 
What do you think of the recent security problems? Feel free to leave your comments/opinions.
Posted in Security.
Tagged with computers, Security, viruses.
By Tyler Golden
– January 8, 2009
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