Wireless network security question

[Martyuk39]

A friend of mine lives close to someone whom she describes as a "nutcase" - he's being a pain in neighbourhood issues. Anyway he claims to have hacked her email, and has sent her solicitor a copy of an email to prove it.

Now, she has a typical wireless setup, with a Netgear router and a couple of XP machines. The default password to the router has not been changed, and there is no security key for wireless access. However:

1. The email is 4 months old, and the contents are a typical thing that you would print out and then throw away. So he can't have accessed her email from the web, since it hasn't been on the web since July.

2. There is no file sharing set up on the network, just the default shares.

So I reckon he's been through the paper rubbish (separate outside bin, public access). I'm assuming he doesn't work with Jack Bauer or Spooks here in the UK, and has not got the technology that would be required to hack emails. I'm assuming with no filesharing the worst he could do is wreck the router config, or jam up web access, neither of which has happened. Yes I know that plenty of people who read this could do plenty more, but he's not a computer guru. I don't know what email package she's on - most likely Outlook Express.

Finally, my friend has wisely changed her email password, and downloaded another firewall. I'm going to put in a wireless access passkey, change the router access username and password, and maybe change the local ip addresses from the ubiquitous 198.xxx etc. Oh, and buy a shredder. Is there anything else that should be considered? To see off nosey neighbours, as opposed to the intelligence community? I'd appreciate some thoughts
Martin

 

[n0cmonkey]

If I can connect to your wireless router, all non-encrypted traffic is mine for the taking. And it doesn't require much knowledge, sniffers are plentiful and pretty easy to use.

 

[dphantom]

Lock down the wireless router.
MAC filtering, don't broadcast SSID, WPA-PSK

All will slow everyone down and stop casual users trying to get on where they are not supposed to.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
If I can connect to your wireless router, all non-encrypted traffic is mine for the taking. And it doesn't require much knowledge, sniffers are plentiful and pretty easy to use.

As n0cmonkey knows, you don't really have to "connect" to the wireless router. Just put up an antenna and read the transmissions from the router and any PC on the unencrypted WiFi network. With a good antenna, this can be done from quite a distance.

If you don't want everybody reading your email (or worse), turn encryption on. Turning off SSID broadcast and performing MAC connection filtering won't keep outsiders from reading your transmissions. Only encryption will do that.

 

[Martyuk39]

Thank you very much for the replies. Fortunately in this instance I am certain that this was a case of going through the rubbish bins and getting a printout of an old email. It turns out that the nutcase is trying to say that he can prove that my friend was responsible for printing out some defamatory literature about him. Which, since she didn't, shows he's making it up. However, just by googling "sniffers" I've seen what can be done very easily. I'm going to hack into my own wireless network, just to alarm myself!

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: dphantom
Lock down the wireless router.
MAC filtering, don't broadcast SSID, WPA-PSK

All will slow everyone down and stop casual users trying to get on where they are not supposed to.

To be honest MAC filtering and disabling the SSID are useless and generally make life more difficult.

 

[dphantom]

Originally posted by: InlineFive

Originally posted by: dphantom
Lock down the wireless router.
MAC filtering, don't broadcast SSID, WPA-PSK

All will slow everyone down and stop casual users trying to get on where they are not supposed to.

To be honest MAC filtering and disabling the SSID are useless and generally make life more difficult.

To someone who half knows what they are doing sure, no argument from me. But in a home environment trying to limit casual snooping, I believe it is worth it since your next door neighbor is probably wide open hence an easier target.

And definitely agree with rebatemonger, encryption is the only way to secure your data if someone is sniffing your traffic.

 

[Martyuk39]

Thanks - one thing I didn't mention - she lives out in the country in an old property with big stone walls - you can't get a signal unless you're on the same level as the router or higher. With normal equipment of course, not antennas and such like. So I think the casual hacker is already deterred in that sense.