They strike at night or in broad daylight. They're called "warchalkers," and they're part of a
global guerrilla campaign to mark free, wireless access points. As "Tech Live" reports tonight, now there's "wardriving," an ambitious,
mobile movement to map those Wi-Fi nodes.
All it takes is a car or bicycle and a laptop with a Wi-Fi card. Wardrivers prowl neighborhoods in search of a wireless connection. They're even able to home in on the exact street address for the strongest connection.
But wardriving and warchalking are attracting attention from federal authorities. Just last month, Pittsburgh-based FBI special agent Bill Shore issued a
memo to members of that city's business community, explaining wardriving and warchalking and warning companies to secure their wireless networks.
Helping hackers and terrorists?
That memo prompted a heated debate about whether the communal wireless movement is going too far.
Shore says he worries that warchalk maps could aid terrorists. And he says wireless networks make it difficult, if not impossible, to trace hackers.
"They will look to find where business is vulnerable. And if they can do an attack or conduct espionage, they will use the wireless vulnerabilities," Shore said. "If someone has malicious intent, they can identify the network that is open, use that to log on and execute the attack, and then be gone."
But Cory Doctorow of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation says he and other warchalkers can't be blamed for security breaches.
"The existence of a map describing your business network isn't the thing that compromises your network," Doctorow said. "Rather, failure to adhere to good security protocol is the thing that compromises your network."
Doctorow says the FBI is being alarmist and is ignoring the rights of many Wi-Fi enthusiasts in cities such as
New York and
San Francisco who
want to share their wireless connection.
"I don't have any problem with people operating a network choosing not to make it available to the public," Doctorow said. "The problem is when people go around and tell you that by choosing to make it available to the public, by choosing to enable free speech, you are somehow being irresponsible."
It's a debate that's likely to continue, as Wi-Fi grows more popular and as users discover that their networks are no longer a well-kept secret.
To find out more about wardriving and warchalking, log on to the site below:
