Why Having a Secure Wireless Network is Important

Theft

All information transmitted by using an unsecured wireless network can be obtained to any or all kinds of unscrupulous people, including those who wish to steal the identities and whatever other sources of information that the owner of the network prefer to donrrrt you have given to a stranger, not to mention a stranger and also require maliciousness about the mind.

For example, friends in 2003 gained easy accessibility to Lowe's Hardware unsecured wireless access point. From there they installed an application which captured all plastic card transactions occurring from the unsecured network.

Abuse

A individual who really wants to conduct business about the internet but doesn't want that business being traced to him will use an unsecured wireless network, the owners that can then become the recipients of any repercussions. Examples of such abuses include a man hijacking a network to download child pornography, that is obviously highly illegal. Even if pet owners of the network never ventured to such revolting websites, based on Joseph Burton, an attorney with the New York law firm Duane Morris, said they could nevertheless be held liable for any illegal activities conducted through their network due to their negligence in establishing adequate security. Other examples of illegal activities that could be conducted on unsecured wireless networks include: distribution pc viruses, spam, downloading of illegal copyrighted material and in many cases terrorist communications. Even something such as peer-to-peer downloading of illegal files can harm the wireless network's owner. Harm arises from decreased internet speeds, not to mention a prospective target and fine of thousands of dollars in fines in the RIAA.

In conclusion, failure to properly protect one's wireless networks might be not just a nuisance, but any disaster waiting to take place. With ample information available online to aid owners secure their networks, there exists truly silly unprotected networks remain fairly commonplace--the risks are far too great, the solutions far too simple.

According to Wikipedia: There are three principal solutions to secure an invisible network.

For closed networks (like home users and organizations) the commonest approach is to configure access restrictions within the access points.

For commercial providers, hotspots, and big organizations, preferred option would be often to have an open and unencrypted, but completely isolated wireless network.

Wireless networks are less secure than wired ones; in many offices intruders can readily visit and hook up their own computer on the wired network without problems, gaining access on the network, also it's often possible for remote intruders to gain access for the network through backdoors like Back Orifice. One general solution may be end-to-end encryption, with independent authentication on all resources that shouldn't be available towards the public.