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Articles

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Articles

WiFi isn’t as secure as you might think

Posted by Robert Picard, Demand ITS 01-04-2020 03:18 PM

WiFi is ubiquitous, accessible and part of your everyday life. We all talked about how insecure WEP was years ago with the change to WPA2. What did that mean to you, not much really, but it reduces the chances of someone intercepting your WiFi.

Now let me ask you a question, would you ever want a stranger to have access to your WiFi at home or at work? The answer is likely no; I’m sorry to inform you but it’s really easy. If you were not already aware, most IoT devices lack security, things like cameras, light bulbs, printers, personal assistants and speakers all can be compromised; the last thing we want to do is make it easier for anyone.

With a few clicks of the keyboard, anyone can pull the WiFi information from your Windows PC. No special tools, no hacking skills required, you just have to know how to ask. It only takes about ten seconds, and two commands to get it.

  • Command 1: netsh wlan show profile
  • Command 2: netsh wlan show profile wiwinetworkname key=clear

RADIUS is the minimum level of security for any business network! It’s also essential for me to mention, likely your IT department can execute these commands without your knowledge. For privacy reasons, I recommend clients create a ’guest’ network in their home and use it for your work laptop; this function exists on most modern routers.

Robert Picard, Demand ITS.