FBI demonstrates 3 minute Wi-Fi hack

Millions of wireless access points are spread across the US and the world. About 70% percent of these access points are unprotected—wide open to access by anyone who happens to drive by. The other 30% are protected by WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and a small handful are protected by the new WPA (WI-FI Protected Access) standard.
FBI demonstrated the hacking of a wireless LAN in 3 minutes at a recent ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) meeting in Los Angeles, a team of FBI agents demonstrated current WEP-cracking techniques and broke a 128 bit WEP key in about three minutes. Special Agent Geoff Bickers ran the Powerpoint presentation and explained the attack, while the other agents (who did not want to be named or photographed) did the dirty work of sniffing wireless traffic and breaking the WEP keys.
The lesson here is that it doesn’t take some super hacker to break in to your home or business network, anyone can. At the end of the linked article, the FBI gives some decent advice that is pretty much in line with the best practices for homes that I email to a few people not to long ago.