Concerned about wireless security

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is often the security method chosen for wireless networks. Did you know that it would be easy for someone to break into your wireless network, and this person could do this in less than an hour? There are tools such as Cain & Abel, which according to their website

• “is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kinds of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. The program does not exploit any software vulnerabilities or bugs that could not be fixed with little effort.”

These tools can be useful but in the wrong hands can pose a threat especially if there is something on your network that would be considered valuable. In any event, do yourself a favour and use WPA (Wifi Protected Access) instead of WEP.