What is War Driving ?
War driving refers to the act of seeking out wi-fi networks by moving around with a computer or smart phone (or any equivalent device) to detect these networks.
This in itself is not a crime. However, criminals usually hunt for open wi-fi networks or those with weak passwords that can be easily cracked. Criminals and fraudsters make available a list of such networks and their locations to others who are interested in exploiting them. Criminals or even naive people end up using these networks for their own use. The internet activity cannot be traced back to them, but rather to the legitimate owners of those networks.
What are the threats ?
Cyber criminals have used war driving to successfully identify and connect to a company’s network without authorization to steal the company’s confidential data.
War driving has also been used by criminals to find unsecure wi-fi networks and use them to send terror threats.
What are the risks ?
A lot of people using internet at home have wireless networks that are open or lack enough security, which leads to very high risks of their network being illegally accessed and used by hackers.
It is difficult for the victims of war driving to prove their innocence if illegal activities are carried out on their network and an investigation is carried out.
