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Penn State DuBois student tops for wireless research

 DuBois – Garrett Roen, an adult learner student at Penn State DuBois, was awarded first place for information technology research for his studies of wireless networks in the DuBois area.

Roen, an Information Science Technology major, took top honors at the 2006 Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Accomplishment conference at Penn State Erie this spring for his efforts to identify unsecured wireless internet accounts, and a follow-up action plan to educate the public on the dangers of holding an insecure account.

Roen sampled the city and surrounding area, looking for wireless internet connections using his laptop computer and marking their locations with a Global Positioning Unit (GPU.) Roen further established which of those accounts were secure, versus unsecured networks. Of the 263 access points throughout the DuBois area, only 65 were secured networks, Roen's research showed. The implications are multiple.

First is the potential exposure of the wireless account holder to unknown users. A neighbor, or someone who parks a car nearby an insecure wireless account, can access the internet through this account, Roen said. An example of a worst-case scenario is that the unauthorized user could download child pornography, he said, and when police investigate, they will come to the account holder first. There may be no way to identify who has downloaded the illegal material, Roen said.

The unauthorized user can also access bank account information and social security numbers, Roen said, or just generally wreak havoc on someone's computer. Another danger, Roen added, is that while many account holders have taken the next step to secure their system, they have chosen not to change their computer's settings from the default account name, called "linksys." Not changing the default makes it easier for hackers to break into a secure system, he said.

Secondly, "while the legality is still in a gray area, using someone else's internet account without their knowledge is technically stealing," Roen said. "It's like splicing cable or putting your trash out with someone else's."

The second part of Roen's research project is to create a website that outlines the hazards of insecure networks as well as provides instructions to secure the account. Roen will embark on this public outreach effort, targeting the DuBois area, within the next month. Finally, Roen will follow up with another random sampling of the DuBois area to determine whether his informational campaign resulted in increased awareness. If he finds fewer insecure accounts on his second sweep, Roen said, the project will be considered successful.

Roen added that during his research, he did not log on to anyone's account. A software program called Netstumbler records all wireless access points within the laptop’s wireless range. 

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