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Wi-Fi Hotspots Could Spread Viruses, Experts Say

by Tim Stevens on January 28, 2009 at 12:33 PM

Digital Wi-Fi Virus Outbreak Modeled
Scientists use computer simulations to model all sorts of things, from the spread of weather patterns to the spread of disease. But a quartet of researchers at the Indiana University School of Informatics are actually using a computer simulation to simulate other computers, attempting to determine how quickly a widespread attack on public Wi-Fi access points would spread across its user base.

Hau Hu, Steven Myers, Vittoria Colizza and Alessandro Vespignani created a model of known public access points in seven metropolitan areas, including downtown Manhattan. They then used known statistics (like, for instance, 40-percent of all Wi-Fi points have no protection at all), and simulated a sequence of events that, in a mere two weeks, would result in 18,000 infected access points in New York City. In this case, "infected" means hackers' gaining access to the Wi-Fi router and modifying it to automatically distribute viruses and steal information in a way similar to that of the Zlob malware we covered last year.

If there's some good news here, it's that the simplest of protection mechanisms on your wireless router can prevent it from being compromised. Don't know where to begin? You can start by clicking here. [From: BBC News]


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Tags: model, router, safety, security, simulation, top, virus, wi-fi, wireless

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