Varanasi blast, email threats send police on wifi security drive

The city police have finally woken up to the need for 'wardriving'. This only after the Varanasi blast and the subsequent threat emails allegedly sent by the Indian Mujahide-en from Mumbai. Wardriving is used to search for WiFi wireless networks with the help of a laptop from a moving vehicle. The police can thus come to know of any unsecured WiFi Internet points.


Sources from the police said that new orders had been issued to conduct and complete the wardriving during the Cyber Safety Week that started yesterday.u00a0

u00a0"We will be conducting the survey soon as the police have approved a vehicle for the purpose. We have been told to finish the survey within a week," said Rohit Srivastava of ClubHack.

Short of officers
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Rajendra Dahale said the cyber cell did not have enough officers to conduct the survey. "The cyber cell has only four officers who are currently busy with the safety week programmes. Every officer is going to two societies, colleges and schools to create awareness. Once the week is over, we will concentrate on the survey for unsecured WiFi networks."

Dahale maintained that there had been no delay in the survey. "Last year also we had conducted the survey in December. This year owing to the cyber safety week programme it has been postponed a bit," Dahale said.

Past surveys
ClubHack with the support of Pune cyber crime cell had conducted a wardrive in November 2008 and December 2009.

In 2008, it was found that 50 per cent of city's wireless networks were open, that is unsecured, and 31 per cent were found with weak encryption (WEP). Only 19 per cent were strongly encrypted with WiFi Protected Access (WPA) and its variants. In 2009, the unsecured connections remained at 50 per cent and WEP came down to 25 per cent.

"Many people hide their Service Set Identifier (SSID) believing that their connections are secure, but it may not be the case. Instead, it may make sophisticated attacks easier. Interestingly, hidden SSID were found in abundance near corporate areas," said Srivastava.

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