WarDriving: Drive, Detect, Defend: A Guide to Wireless Security - Softcover

The practice of WarDriving is a unique combination of hobby, sociological research, and security assessment. The act of driving or walking through urban areas with a wireless-equipped laptop to map both protected and un-protected wireless networks has sparked intense debate amongst lawmakers, security professionals, and the telecommunications industry. This first ever book on WarDriving is written from the inside perspective of those who have created the tools that make WarDriving possible and those who gather, analyze, and maintain data on all secured and open wireless access points in very major, metropolitan area worldwide. These insiders also provide the information to secure your wireless network before it is exploited by criminal hackers.

Wireless networks have become a way of life in the past two years. As more wireless networks are deployed the need to secure them increases. This book educates users of wireless networks as well as those who run the networks about the insecurities associated with wireless networking. This effort is called WarDriving. In order to successfully WarDrive there are hardware and software tool required. This book covers those tools, along with cost estimates and recommendations. Since there are hundreds of possible configurations that can be used for WarDriving, some of the most popular are presented to help readers decide what to buy for their own WarDriving setup.

Many of the tools that a WarDriver uses are the same tools that could be used by an attacker to gain unauthorized access to a wireless network. Since this is not the goal of a WarDriver, the methodology that users can use to ethically WarDrive is presented. In addition, complete coverage of WarDriving applications, such as NetStumbler, MiniStumbler; and Kismet, are covered.