Wardriving 'geek' is on the wireless beat

Note: I like informative information like this. Personally I know of alot of open unsecure wireless networks around my area. People need to know what it means to operate a wireless networks and step they can take to reduce risk to your sensitive computers and data. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

He stands out from the crowd of government workers, techies and managers at the annual ICE ("Inspire. Connect. Educate.") Technology Conference here. Dressed mostly in black, and a bit younger than the average delegate, he lurks near the entrance of the conference room as several hundred delegates file in, fiddling with his computer gear.

Then, when it's his turn to speak, Brad Haines shocks many with what he's discovered about their wireless devices. People throughout the room reach for their laptops, cellphones and PDAs to turn them off. "I've personally discovered over 140,000 devices in North America, about 70,000 in the Edmonton area alone," he boasts. "In fact, I've stopped counting."

Haines calls himself "Edmonton's local wardriving geek," a reference to his favorite hobby of looking for networks and devices that are broadcasting their presence to the world.

He directs the audience to the website www.wigle.net which, at last count, had tracked 7,910,944 access points around the world, complete with their exact locations. Sure enough, zooming in on the interactive map of Edmonton produces a dense cloud of access points with names such as poohbutt, Zeus and Henry the Network, but also, ominously, Accounting and Epcor, an Alberta utility company.

Not that anyone is saying major corporations have their networks sitting out there ripe for the picking, but at least they're discoverable by anyone who cares to look.

While Haines may look out of place at a mainstream computer conference, he fits right in at the notorious "hacker cons" such as Defcon and ShmooCon.

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