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War driving and war chalking

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on February 10, 2004

In Reply to: War driving and war chalking posted by ESC on February 10, 2004

: There was an article in my local paper about "war driving" (also "wardriving") and "war chalking." The article said that if you network two computers using wireless technology, it is possible that war drivers can not only access files stored on your computer but can also watch what sites you visit and even obtain a record of your keystrokes allowing them to pry into e-mails or instant messaging conversations.

: "Wardriving is driving around a city searching for the existence of Wireless (802.11) Networks. Or: the benign act of locating and logging wireless access points while in motion." www.wardrive.net/ Accessed February 10, 2004.

: "Warchalking is the practice of marking a series of symbols on sidewalks and walls to indicate nearby wireless access. That way, other computer users can pop open their laptops and connect to the Internet wirelessly. It was inspired by the practice of hobos during the Great Depression to use chalk marks to indicate which homes were friendly."
: www.warchalking.org/ Accessed February 10, 2004.

There's a term called "war dialing" that refers to someone just sequentially dialing phone numbers using a modem, looking for a computer to hack into. I would suppose that was the original in the "war-" series of computer hacker terms. Now, one might further suppose that the term "war-dialing" was based on the movie War Games where an adolescent programs his home computer to dial phone numbers sequentially and eventually hacks into a Pentagon computer and almost starts World War 3. I don't know that for sure, but I would suppose it.

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