None of this should be any surprise to you if you use a cell phone. You know
that even within a single room there may be spots where the signal is strong
or weak, or places where the connection is completely gone. And you know
that a strong signal may suddenly fade away, perhaps because some other
source of interference has entered the arena.Keeping Your PIN to Yourself......................................................................
Finally, it is worth noting that using a wireless network is a little bit like
shouting out your bank account number across a packed baseball stadium
and also somewhat like leaving the door to your home or office unlocked.What do I mean by that? Well, first of all, you are disclosing some valuable
private information in a public place. An eavesdropper — ranging from the
electronic equivalent of a peeping Tom to a professional thief who is looking
to steal your savings — can park outside your home or office or sit across the
coffee shop or airport lounge and attempt to tap in to the flow of data coming
to or from your machine over the Internet.Don’t think, though, that this is all that easily done. The eavesdropper has
to pick your particular stream of information out of the thicket of 0s and 1s
bouncing around the room, has to determine what they mean and to which
accounts they apply, and has to grab the beginning, middle, and end of the
data from the chopped-up packets of information that move from place to place.
That’s why I liken it to yelling your information across Fenway Park; someone
else may or may not hear you, may not understand everything you say, and may
not grasp the significance of what they hear even if they get it all.My second analogy, that of leaving your house or office unlocked, may be more
troubling. Even though in the real world leaving an unlocked door is not a prob-
lem for most of us — simply not all that many thieves walk around jiggling
doorknobs — when it comes to computers, alas, technology has automated
the jiggling.A dedicated computer hacker or professional thief can use electronic tools
that quickly probe hundreds and thousands of ports on a computer that is
connected to a network (wired or wireless) in search of one that is unlocked.
If he can find one open to outsiders and that leads to personal data stored on
the computer’s hard drive, he can attempt to steal from your bank accounts
or steal your identity for other purposes. If he is merely malicious, he could
plant a virus on your system.So who you gonna call when it comes to security? The answer for laptop
users is the same as for desktop computer owners: Every machine should
have at least one level of electronic firewall as well as a capable, continually
updated antivirus program.Chapter 14: Feeling Up In the Air 211