House & Home

Allow updates to protect from new Wi-Fi hack

Even the best Wi-Fi password is not protection from the newest security threat. New research shows that home and business W-Fi networks, even those secured with a password, can be vulnerable to something called KRACKS, or key reinstallation attacks. Put simply, someone could watch the data being transmitted over Wi-Fi.

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DURHAM, N.C. — Even the best Wi-Fi password is not protection from the newest security threat. New research shows that home and business W-Fi networks, even those secured with a password, can be vulnerable to something called KRACKS, or key reinstallation attacks.

"The main risk that we're dealing with here is eavesdropping," said Richard Biever, chief information security officer for Duke University.

"They have proven how to disrupt the four-way handshake that occurs when somebody connects to the wireless network. By doing that, what they are able to do then is decrypt traffic between somebody who is connecting to wireless, between that computer and the wireless network they are connecting to."

Put simply, someone could watch the data being transmitted over Wi-Fi.

The threat is limited, Biever said, by distance.

"I have to get really close to your house to pick up your wireless signal, and then I have to start listening in, and that's hopefully going to be pretty obvious that something's going up," he said.

The best protection is the newest hardware and software. Biever suggests checking with the manufacturer of a router to see if there's a software update.

Companies like Google and Apple are pushing out a fix for wireless phones.

"On the mobile phones and the laptops, when updates come out for Microsoft or Google or Apple, you should be applying those," he said.

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