Laptops + Wireless = Security Risk

If you're using your laptop to surf the net while sipping coffee at Starbucks, please check your settings.

Michael Santo writes in Laptops Vulnerable to Simple Wireless Security Issue in Windows that it is easy for others to connect to your laptop without any intervention, if the two of you last connected to the net via the same Starbucks outlet.

To protect yourself, you'll need to ensure that your laptop's "Network to access" settings use "Access Point (infrastructure) networks only" and not "Any available network" (which is strangely the default setting).

[ First posted on 01/17/2006 by Manuel Viloria ]