Contagious WiFi virus goes airborne, spreads like the common cold
Computer science researchers have demonstrated for the first time how a digital virus can go airborne and spread via “WiFi” networks in populated areas at the same pace as a “human diseases.”
The “Chameleon” virus, designed by a University of Liverpool team, showed a “remarkable” amount of intelligence by “avoiding” detection and breaking into “personal and business” WiFi networks at their “weakest” points, spreading at an “alarming” rate.
Network Security Professor Alan Marshall said the virus doesn’t try to “damage or disrupt” established networks, instead, the virus slips in unnoticed to “collect the data and log-in information” of all users connected to the network via WiFi, and seeks other WiFi networks through them, “a much more subtle, sinister and dangerous objective.”
“WiFi connections are increasingly a target for computer hackers because of well-documented security vulnerabilities, which make it difficult to detect and defend against a virus,” Marshall said in a ScienceBlog report.
“It was assumed, however, that it wasn’t possible to develop a virus that could attack WiFi networks — but we demonstrated that this is possible and that it can spread quickly.”
The secret to “Chameleon” is the method by which it “avoids” detection.
Traditional computer “antivirus” programs look for viruses present on “computers and the Internet” itself.
Chameleon “sticks” strictly to “WiFi” networks, bypassing secured, more heavily “encrypted” networks to enter and spread through weaker ones, especially “free public access points” like those found in cafes, on trains and in airports.
A lab experiment by the University’s School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Electronics “simulated” what researchers likened to an “airborne contagion attack” against Belfast and London, entering WiFi access points that connect “public and private” networks to the Internet.
The virus traveled “fastest” across access points within a 160 feet or less of each other, following similar rates of human “infection” by viruses among more densely populated areas.
“We are now able to use the data generated from this study to develop a new technique to identify when an attack is likely,” Marshall said.
Here is a sad story about “WiFi” casualties…
A man received the following text from his neighbor: “I am so sorry Bob. I’ve been riddled with guilt and I have to confess. I have been tapping your wife, day and night when you’re not around.”
In fact, more than you. I’m not getting “anything” in my home, but that’s no excuse. I can no longer live with the “guilt” and I hope you will “accept” my sincerest apology with my “promise” that it won’t happen again.
The man, “anguished and betrayed,” went into his bedroom, grabbed his gun, and without a word, “shot” his wife dead.
Few minutes later he received “another” message from the same neighbor stating “So sorry for the spelling mistake. I meant to write “WIFI” and not “WIFE!”
New Virus Spreads Like The Common Cold
