On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Jeff Brown<[email protected]> wrote: > Seriously, what are the odds someone in your neighborhood is lurking around > with the technology/desire to break into your home network?
For a home network, the biggest threat is probabbly someone looking to mooch Internet access. Possibly a criminal looking to cover their tracks. (How would you like kiddie porn being traced to your IP address?) These aren't targeted attacks; anyone will do. For this sort of thing, the best countermeasure is to have a neighbor with a less secure access point. Same principle as car alarms: Car alarms don't make it impossible to steal your car; rather, they just make it easier to steal the car parked next to yours. Targeted attacks seem a lot less likely for home networks. Certainly, some people/organizations scan for networks to break in to for data mining purposes. I'd guess the most likely attack here would actually come from someone looking for corporate networks (they typically are of higher value). In this case, enacting sophisticated countermeasures -- like turning off SSID broadcast -- might (*might*) actually draw attention: Attackers scanning the area might see that as a sign that your network has something to hide. I suppose someone could go looking for home networks to steal credit card numbers, etc., that might be stored on home PCs, but that seems unlikely. It's high risk (requires local physical presence) and offers little reward, and there are much easier alternatives (spyware). -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
