Wireless network attack: Raising the awareness of Kampung WiFi residents

The rapid growth of Information and Communication Technology has made people around the world spending more time on the Internet than ever before. Online activities are carried out on a daily basis from information searching to property purchasing. This trend is on the uprise with commercial Internet Service Providers offering affordable wireless broadband connection to all, including in rural areas. In some countries, free Internet access is given to residents through ´hotspots´ such as Kampung WiFi in Malaysia. Although this means more people can connect to the information highway, it raises the issue of Information Security and Privacy how secure are these networks? This paper aims to demonstrate the vulnerability of Kampung WiFi networks in order to amplify awareness among its Internet users with regards to security and privacy. Background of Kampung WiFi is presented in Section I while Section II presents wireless network implementation technologies namely WLAN, WMAN, WWAN. Review of classic network attacks including Malicious Associations, Identity Theft, Man-In-The-Middle, Network Injection, Caffe Latte and Denial-of-Service is presented in Section III and Section IV demonstrates wireless network attacks using Cain & Abel, Wireshark and NetworkMiner. Finally, conclusion is made in Section V. It is hoped that this paper will highlight the importance of IT security and privacy in Kampung WiFi.