War Driving

War driving refers to the act of driving through a neighborhood with a wireless-enabled computer, like a laptop or PDA, and accessing wireless networks associated with houses or businesses. The name comes from "war dialing" from the 1983 film War Games, in which the main character programs his computer to dial every telephone number in a town in order to find other computer systems.

War driving can compromise both confidentiality and integrity because it can allow someone to access and modify private information. As of yet, no clear law specifically prohibits war driving.

For wireless networks, WEP (wired equivalent privacy) was first used to provide confidentiality comparable to that of a traditional wired network, hence the name. It gives an authenticating WEP key to each user, which allows you to transmit or receive encrypted information. Later, WEP became known as providing weak security because available software could break it within minutes, and Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) was therefore introduced.

To use WPA, all the devices communicating on the network need to be configured for WPA. Even if only one networked device is configured for WEP, all other devices will fall back to this less secure encryption method, so that all devices can communicate with each other. All popular wireless equipment supports WEP.

The steps to enable WEP/WPA should be provided with the user's manual that came with your wireless router. It's best to refer to those instructions because routers vary and sometimes also require software installation provided by the router company for your operating system to support the encryption.