Who would have thunk it? I had to chuckle when I saw this article jump across my screen. I don't know what's funnier - the FBI catching on to how insecure airport "hot spots" are or that this was even news. The FBI released a statement this week warning citizens who use the WIFI connections at airports to be careful as the connections were suseptible to being hacked. According to the article,
"While many of these hot spots have secure networks, some do not, according to Supervisory Special Agent Donna Peterson of FBI's Cyber Division. And connecting to an insecure network can leave one vulnerable to attacks from hackers.I'll accept this is news to most people who are unaware of the risks but most serious web users as well professionals have known this for years. This could have been an attempt by the FBI to curb a trend of online thefts from WIFI connections which would certainly under their jurisdiction. As you can tell from the article, there isn't much detail regarding why this is suddenly newsworthy.
Agent Peterson said one of the most common types of attack is this: a bogus but legitimate-looking Wi-Fi network with a strong signal is strategically set up in a known hot spot...and the hacker waits for nearby laptops to connect to it.
At that point, your computer and all your sensitive information, including user ID, passwords, credit card numbers, basically belongs to the hacker, Peterson said.
The intruder can mine your computer for valuable data, direct you to phony webpages that look like ones you frequent, and record your every keystroke."
