some news to share with the tech corner=)
The second generation of Wi-Fi security systems has now been
broken as badly as its notoriously insecure
predecessor: Japanese researchers say they can crack WPA (Wi-Fi
Protected Access), the successor to the old-school WEP, inside of a
minute's time spent eavesdropping on a wireless network.
Details on the mechanics of the attack are set to be announced
next month at a computer conference, but it's tentatively described
as taking to "a new level" the previous method by which WPA had
been roughly compromised, adapting previously theoretical holes in
the WPA system and turning them into practical attack
techniques.
The previous method of attacking WPA devices took up to 15
minutes to be successful, and didn't always work. The new method is
said to work on far more devices and, obviously, much more quickly.
However, as with the old attack, the new one only works on WPA
devices that use the TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol)
algorithm, which is a setting in your router and device setup.
WPA devices that use the newer AES (Advanced Encryption
Standard) algorithm, plus devices that use WPA2 -- the third
generation of wireless security standards -- are still safe for
now.
However, this does mean that it won't be long before this attack
technique trickles out into software that malicious hackers can use
to invade WPA networks. With access to your wireless network, a
hacker can potentially eavesdrop on any traffic sent, access shared
folders on computers attached to the network, and of course send
and receive data (like illegal file sharing or even child
pornography) which could then be blamed on you.
To protect yourself, upgrade the security settings on your
devices to WPA2 if they all support the standard. Alternately, you
can upgrade any WPA device from TKIP security to AES. Check in your
router administration console and on your computer for and where
how to do this.
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/147906