Piggybacking
From Computing and Software Wiki
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| - | == | + | == McMaster University Poll == |
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| + | Just as a comparison, I conducted a small survey sampling our fellow students at McMaster. I attempted to cover a broad range of students from different faculties so I only asked a few students in this class as I did not want to contaminate the data with biased answers. About 55% of the students I surveyed admitted to have piggybacked before and 45% said they have not. Mind you, I was patiently waiting for them to finish filling out the survey so I suspect some may have not been telling the truth in fear of embarrassment. | ||
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| + | Of all the student’s surveyed, only about 20% expressed concerned about security issues when using somebody’s wireless network and said they would not send passwords or do any other information sensitive actions. | ||
Revision as of 21:51, 30 November 2007
Piggybacking internet access is the practice of gaining network services of someone’s wireless connection without the owner’s explicit permission or knowledge by moving their own computer into range of the broadcasting access point in question.
Background
The recent explosive growth of wireless technology found in the market can be attributed to the many benefits wireless telecommunications provide. From the casual Internet surfer to the technological inclined power user, wireless networks provide the convenience of mobility, keeping up with today’s trends in increasing portability and decreasing size of our devices. Unfortunately, wireless networks also suffer from more attacks and abuse because of how easy it is to locate and connect to wireless networks in comparison to traditional wired ones. In combination with the lack of strong default security counter measures, the controversial practice of piggybacking has increasingly become more common.
Piggybacking should not be confused with wardriving which involves only the mapping of the insecure access points. In addition, people connecting to a hotspot service provided by businesses is generally not considered as piggybacking.
McMaster University Poll
Just as a comparison, I conducted a small survey sampling our fellow students at McMaster. I attempted to cover a broad range of students from different faculties so I only asked a few students in this class as I did not want to contaminate the data with biased answers. About 55% of the students I surveyed admitted to have piggybacked before and 45% said they have not. Mind you, I was patiently waiting for them to finish filling out the survey so I suspect some may have not been telling the truth in fear of embarrassment.
Of all the student’s surveyed, only about 20% expressed concerned about security issues when using somebody’s wireless network and said they would not send passwords or do any other information sensitive actions.
