Wi-Fi Mythbuster: Do *NOT* disable SSID

Wi-fi users are often advised to disable or hide the SSID (Service Set Identifier, or simply, the network name) of their routers as a security measure. This tip appears in numerous web pages, books, and magazines. It even shows up on the websites of wireless product manufacturers.
The idea behind disabling SSID is to make your wireless router “invisible” to hackers and other malicious users.

It's been repeated so often that many people just assume it is true. So it has become the tech equivalent of an old wive's tale, you know, like not swimming for an hour after you eat, or you'll get cramps and drown.

Unfortunately, merely disabling SSID is ineffective as a security measure, and any active wi-fi router can be revealed quite easily. Free tools like Netstumbler will display all active wi-fi routers, regardless of whether their SSID is hidden. Worse, disabling SSID can actually degrade network performance.

The SSID myth was actually been debunked for years. No less than Robert Moskowitz, senior technical director at ICSA Labs warned against it as far back as Dec 2003, in a paper titled “Debunking the Myth of SSID Hiding” (PDF file).
“Efforts to hide the SSID are at best half-measures which lead to a false sense of security and to a degradation of wireless network performance.” Moskowitz wrote.

Microsoft also advices against disabling SSIDs, as evidenced by these two pages from its TechNet website — “Non-broadcast Wireless Networks with Microsoft Windows”, and “Non-Broadcast Wireless SSIDs: Why hidden wireless networks are a bad idea”

So, you should merely change your router’s SSID, and not disable it. Also implement other security measures such as enabling WPA encryption (don't use WEP), changing the default router password, and filtering by MAC address.

Beware of open and "free" proxies

With Internet access still quite crippled in Malaysia, I've noticed some postings on forums and some blogs about "free" web proxies located in other countries. These proxies are provided by ostensibly "generous" persons who want to "help" you surf the net.

Speaking from personal experience, setting up a secure and properly configured web proxy is not a trivial matter. In fact, I would only do so for users I know and trust. Other than the obvious bandwidth issues, proxy operators also need to worry about liability issues. For example, users may use the proxy to surf kiddy pr0n, spammers could use it to send out their unwanted mail, or hackers could use it to launch attacks.

Just to give you an idea the cost and effort needed to run a web proxy, one company charges US$24.95 a month for dial-up bandwidth (30-60kbps) and US$49.95 a month for broadband (100-900kbps) access to its proxies . With that in mind, you have to wonder why would anyone set up a free, open proxy that can be accessed by thousands, even millions of users?

As the proxy company noted:
If someone is offering a free proxy service, there is a catch somewhere. Considering the cost of bandwidth and machine maintenance, a free proxy service is simply not feasible.

The proxies that are listed likely to be malicious proxies, i.e. proxies set up by hackers to record, or worse, to alter traffic that passes thru them.
By design, a proxy sits between your browser and other websites, and this provides a perfect opportunity for conducting Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. If you have used these unknown proxies, I recommend you immediately change all your passwords and check activity/transaction logs for any accounts you accessed thru them.

In fact, most, if not all proxies on public lists and forums are:

1) Misconfigured proxies - the operater is not aware that the proxy is open to the rest of the world. Users are, in fact, stealing bandwidth.
2) Malicious proxies - these are set up by hackers to record everything sent to the proxy; this includes unencrypted logins and passwords.
3) Compromised proxies - If an operator does not know how to properly configure a proxy, there's a chance he may not know much about security either. Even if the operator has no malicious intent, the proxy may eventually be compromised by hackers and turned into a malicious proxy.

Wikipedia has some general info about proxy servers and also mentions malicious proxies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server

A commercial provider of proxies details the risks of using open proxies:
The dangers of open proxy servers
http://theproxyconnection.com/openproxy.html
OK, some of it is probably self-serving - this company sells proxy services - but there is still lot of useful information about open proxies that all users need to know.

Back to Wikipedia:
The bottom line is - be wary when using proxy servers, and only use proxy servers of known integrity (e.g., the owner is known and trusted, has a clear privacy policy, etc.), and never use proxy servers of unknown integrity. If there is no choice but to use unknown proxy servers, do not pass any private information (unless it is properly encrypted) through the proxy.