This is why you use strong wireless security

This will be my last post until December 28th.

I read the story on Securityweek.com, although I had to go to Startribune.com to find more details. Barry Vincent Ardolf's neighbors learned a hard lesson. Use the strongest encryption and password you can on your wireless router. If you don't, you could be face the same nightmare they did. Matt and Bethany Kostolnik were initially suspected of sending emails containing sexual messages and child pornography to Matt Kostolniks boss. But that wasn't enough. Death threats were sent to Vice President Biden and other politicians in Kostolniks name.

Ardolf hacked into the Kostolnik's wireless router, then used the connection to create fake myspace pages and email accounts in the Kostolniks name. He then proceeded to send messages and child pornography to important people. The plan was to frame the neighbors. Fortunately Ardolf was only almost as smart as he thought he was, and a slip pointed investigators to him.

His story, predictably, is that he is the one who was framed. While it's possible, enough evidence was found on his computers and other devices to show that he needs to be taken off the streets, regardless. If it was a frame, it was a very thorough one.

If you have a wireless router be sure to use the strongest encryption you can. In most cases that should be either WPA or WPA-2. Next week we'll look at a few different routers and how to setup the security on them.