Wireless Networks Are Soft Virus Targets

We have all gotten emails warning us about nasty computer viruses. Maybe you even have antivirus software installed on your machine. Well, now scientsts say that our wireless networks are particular vulnerable to infection, especially in densely populated urban areas.

The use of wi-fi routers has become increasingly commonplace as more people get online at home, at school, at the coffee shop. And these wireless networks are an an excellent target for computer viruses. Because they are always on, always connected to the Internet, and do not have specific software to protect them.

The scientists simulated the real infection of wireless networks in a handful of US cities, including San Fransico, Chicago, New York and Boston. They found that the infection of just a small number of routers triggered an outbreak, with the virus spreading to tens of thousands of routers within a week, most within the first 24 hours.The results are published in the Procceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wireless networks are weakened by a general lack of security, including a failure to change the default password. So if you want your networks virus-free, at the very least choose a password that's hard to guess, like basco.

SOURCE:http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=wireless-networks-are-soft-virus-ta-09-01-29