November 25, 2009

evil twin

Last modified: Thursday, October 29, 2009 

Evil twin is a type of Wi-Fi attack, similar in nature to Web site spoofing and e-mail phishing attacks. Here's how an evil twin attack works:

A hacker sets its service identifier (SSID) to be the same as an access point at the local hotspot or corporate wireless network. The hacker disrupts or disables the legitimate AP by disconnecting it, directing a denial of service against it, or creating RF interference around it. Users lose their connections to the legitimate AP and re-connect to the "evil twin," allowing the hacker to intercept all the traffic to that device. [Source: Wi-Fi Planet]

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Meeting the Evil Twin
While the possibility of evil twins has existed for some time, it was only last month that a British cyber-crime expert drew attention to the escalating threat.

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