War Driving

Many people think of computer hacking as something done within the confines of someone's basement with several powerful computers. This is far from the truth. Now, with the advent of wireless LANs and the ease of breaking into them, war driving is popular. In war driving, a malicious hacker is armed with a laptop and a powerful antenna. While driving throughout a city, a malicious hacker can pick up and sniff wireless networks.

Variants of war driving include war walking, where a malicious hacker has a handheld device with wireless capabilities, war pedaling, where a malicious hacker uses a bicycle instead of an automobile, and war flying, where a malicious hacker uses an airplane to scout out wireless networks. War flying is also sometimes used by security auditors to scan large organizations and military bases to detect vulnerable wireless networks. In some cities, there is a rise in the use of war sailing, where people are using boats and going up and down a river or coastline searching for wireless networks.

The next section covers many of the popular tools used by penetration testers and malicious hackers when attempting to access wireless networks.