Windows Wireless Flaw a Danger to Laptops

[kenc51]

What Loveless found was that by creating a network connection on his computer that matches the name of the network the target computer is broadcasting, the two computers could be made to associate with one another on the same link local network, effectively allowing the attacker to directly access the victim's machine.`
...........I followed Loveless up to his hotel room to get a first hand example of how this attack would work. I set up an ad hoc wireless network connection on my Windows XP laptop named "hackme." Within a few seconds of hitting "Ok," to create the network, my laptop was assigned a 169.254.x.x address. A few seconds later, Loveless could see my computer sending out a beacon saying it was ready to accept connections from other computers that might also have the "hackme" network pre-configured on their machines. Loveless then created an ad hoc network with the same name, and told his computer to go ahead and connect to "hackme." Voila! His machine was assigned a different 169.254.x.x address and we both verified that we could send data packets back forth to each other's computer.

Link

Disable your wifi connection when not in-use folks!!!!

This is a known prob, but the above link explains it in plain english....(better than I could!)

[NAiLs]

I use the wireless in my laptop all the time, but it isn't controlled by Microsofts software. My laptop never turns off and is always connected, wirelessly, to the internet.

That attack almost sounds like the "Man in the middle" attack, but with a different approach. Pretty cool stuff... I'm gonna have to try that out at school in the next couple weeks if I can.