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Overview
The practice of WarDriving is a unique combination of hobby, sociological research, and security assessment. The act of driving or walking through urban areas with a wireless-equipped laptop to map both protected and un-protected wireless networks has sparked intense debate amongst lawmakers, security professionals, and the telecommunications industry. This first ever book on WarDriving is written from the inside perspective of those who have created the tools that make WarDriving possible and those who gather, analyze, and maintain data on all secured and open wireless access points in very major, metropolitan area worldwide. These insiders also provide the information to secure your wireless network before it is exploited by criminal hackers.* Provides the essential information needed to protect and secure wireless networks
* Written from the inside perspective of those who have created the tools for WarDriving and those who gather, maintain and analyse data on wireless networks
* This is the first book to deal with the hot topic of WarDriving
Audience: Network administrators needing information on how to protect their wireless networks. People interested in conducting their own wardrives or checking for hot spots.
Synopsis
The practice of WarDriving is a unique combination of hobby, sociological research, and security assessment. The act of driving or walking through urban areas with a wireless-equipped laptop to map both protected and un-protected wireless networks has sparked intense debate amongst lawmakers, security professionals, and the telecommunications industry. This first ever book on WarDriving is written from the inside perspective of those who have created the tools that make WarDriving possible and those who gather, analyze, and maintain data on all secured and open wireless access points in very major, metropolitan area worldwide. These insiders also provide the information to secure your wireless network before it is exploited by criminal hackers.
Wireless networks have become a way of life in the past two years. As more wireless networks are deployed the need to secure them increases. This book educates users of wireless networks as well as those who run the networks about the insecurities associated with wireless networking. This effort is called WarDriving. In order to successfully WarDrive there are hardware and software tool required. This book covers those tools, along with cost estimates and recommendations. Since there are hundreds of possible configurations that can be used for WarDriving, some of the most popular are presented to help readers decide what to buy for their own WarDriving setup.
Many of the tools that a WarDriver uses are the same tools that could be used by an attacker to gain unauthorized access to a wireless network. Since this is not the goal of a WarDriver, the methodology that users can use to ethically WarDrive is presented. In addition, complete coverage of WarDriving applications, such as NetStumbler, MiniStumbler; and Kismet, are covered.
Library Journal
WarDriving-or moving around an area to map wireless access points-presents an opportunity for those interested in raising awareness of wireless connectivity and security vulnerabilities; an opening for those looking to contribute connectivity through deliberately opening access; and a security threat to those who fail to protect their networks-even though ethical WarDrivers point out that they eschew unauthorized network use. WarDriving teaches how to WarDrive, from necessary tools to useful software; each chapter ends with a summary, bullet points, and FAQ. Later chapters discuss how to attack and how to defend wireless networks, making this useful for readers wanting to protect their networks. The main focus, however, may find a narrow audience in most libraries; those seeking books on securing their network will want to supplement with more thorough guides, and those interested in WarDriving may already be conversant with the tools and ideas discussed. A supplemental purchase for larger libraries. Wi-Foo covers similar ground and discusses similar utilities, yet it goes much deeper into the nuts and bolts of both breaking into and defending wireless networks. Some more technical sections are balanced out by step-by-step explanations of security basics and patterns of attack. Extensive appendixes range from antenna irradiation patterns to war-chalking symbols to a penetration testing template. Wireless security is an ever-growing issue, which makes this thorough guide recommended for larger libraries. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewWarDriving gets plenty of publicity: mostly breathless TV reports of mobile hackers reading folks’ private emails. (Most WarDrivers aren’t doing that, of course.) WarDriving also has a technical mystique that makes it sound tougher than it is. You do need the right tools, instructions, and advice, though. WarDriving: Drive, Detect, Defend brings all that together in one place.
You’ll build a complete WarDriving toolkit -- hardware and software. Learn which wireless network cards to buy, and which to avoid. (Stay away from 802.11a cards, but also 802.11a/b/g combo cards; the authors will tell you why.) Discover how to choose the right external antenna -- and, yes, the obligatory homemade Pringles can antenna is discussed, too.
The most important WarDriving software is covered in detail. On Windows, that would be NetStumbler for Windows, along with MiniStumbler, its slimmed-down cousin for Pocket PCs. The authors show how to use it to to identify wireless networks; track networks by your location, via GPS satellite receivers; and how to analyze the information you’ve captured. On Linux, the software of choice is Kismet. Along with thorough coverage of configuration and usage, the authors walk you through installation on both Slackware and Red Hat Fedora.
You’ll learn how to map and organize WarDrives here. You’ll also take a close look at wireless security -- for both attackers and defenders. Along the way, the authors also take time to explode some myths. For instance, nobody “WarChalks” nowadays. But if you must, they do give you the “secret” symbols. Bill Camarda
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2003 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.