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Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

blogs.computerworld.com

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Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#191

Post by diminoten »

What does that mean? "Google knows"? That data exists in a database owned by Google, or that Google actively farms that data and makes use of it?

Are you saying Google's using this for gain, or for any reason? Is there any evidence whatsoever to suggest that this data has ever been accessed by a Google employee ever, for any purpose whatsoever?

Slight tangent, but the difference between "can" and "does" is a vast one I don't think people are getting, with all these privacy issues coming about these days. Here's a scary thought: any person who owns a gun/car/knife/taser/baseball bat can kill someone else with it. They could do it.

Unless it "does" happen, and there's evidence that it happened, they don't get in trouble.

What Google can do is almost endless. What it does do is what matters.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#192

Post by kaoD »

rch wrote: post #180
guelo wrote: post #134

Your WiFi password is only useful for someone who is within 100 feet of your house. If you have federal agents surveilling you from 100 feet away you have way bigger problems than your WiFi password.

Aren't most wi-fi networks trivial to crack anyway?

Probably not, even for inexperienced users. WEP was flawed but it's been rolled out already and most ISPs configure routers with proper WPA-PSK and long passphrases.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#193

Post by juhanima »

darkarmani wrote: post #166
bjornsing wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing seriously wrong with WPA2 itself. I'd consider it as secure as pretty much anything else out there that uses 128bit AES (given that your key exchange is secure of course - read on below). The problem is with the PSK variety, mainly that it's susceptible to offline dictionary attack: about 5% of actual WPA2-PSKs can be easily guessed [1]. There is stuff in the works to fix this though. My favorite is E…

Is there a way to authenticate that you are connecting to your AP?

Yes, check out the many variations of the EAP and PEAP authentication protocols. Client authenticates the access point by its certificate, client gets authenticated by his/her client certificate. While some combinations have some flaws, like MSCHAPv2 may have too short keys for instance, there are others that I consider quite solid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Authentication_Proto...

EDIT: Sorry for having repeated some of the stuff bjornsing already said. Should read through more carefully before rushing to comment, I guess.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#194

Post by DannyBee »

grandalf wrote: post #169
DominikR wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Both, but any Google executive aware of the abuses could have anonymously tipped off Wikileaks or some other journalist. None did." We do not know this and it would be questionable if the risk associated with such an act would be worth it considering that Google can actually use its resources to move things in a legal way. (via courts, lobbying in Washington etc.) "To explain Google's behavior, classic diffusion of…

We do not know this and it would be questionable if the risk associated with such an act would be worth it considering that Google can actually use its resources to move things in a legal way. (via courts, lobbying in Washington etc.) Google's legal initiatives are largely just naked lobbying for its own corporate interest. SOPA in particular. Nothing wrong with this but it's a lot different than using its legal team…

"Google's legal initiatives are largely just naked lobbying for its own corporate interest. SOPA in particular.'

This is where I stopped reading.

I personally know all of the people at Google involved in doing SOPA, and you have literally no idea what you are talking about.

You are talking about a group of people mostly from places like EFF, Creative Commons, and other wonderful orgs. They do it because they want to make the world better, don't want to see the internet censored, and because it's the right thing to do. Maybe you are too cynical and jaded to do something like that, but they aren't. Your opinions have zero basis in fact.

(I read the rest, and it's equally as uninformed. You no nothing of what google has tried to do, done, or anything of the sort, be it related to the NSA or anything else. If Google puts out press releases, you call them self-interested, if they do it quietly, you never notice and think they are 100% cooperative. They are fucked either way).

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#195

Post by _wk3u »

ebbv wrote: post #128
tytso wrote: post #52

The author is worried about WiFi passwords? If you trust that your WiFi is secure in general, you're in trouble. WPS is horribly insecure, for example, and that's what most home users use. Most user-chosen passwords are incredibly easy to guess for another. The better thing to do is to assume that your network traffic is always under surveillance (since the NSA is tapping Tier1 network providers), and to encrypt ever…

Yeah and those locks on your doors are a joke! Why are you pretending your home has an expectation of privacy? So dumb! Of COURSE anybody can just come into your house any time they want.

In general, home locks aren't to keep people out. They're to keep people honest. For everything else there's insurance.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#196

Post by grandalf »

DannyBee wrote: post #194
grandalf wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do not know this and it would be questionable if the risk associated with such an act would be worth it considering that Google can actually use its resources to move things in a legal way. (via courts, lobbying in Washington etc.) Google's legal initiatives are largely just naked lobbying for its own corporate interest. SOPA in particular. Nothing wrong with this but it's a lot different than using its legal team…

"Google's legal initiatives are largely just naked lobbying for its own corporate interest. SOPA in particular.' This is where I stopped reading. I personally know all of the people at Google involved in doing SOPA, and you have literally no idea what you are talking about. You are talking about a group of people mostly from places like EFF, Creative Commons, and other wonderful orgs. They do it because they want to…

You are talking about a group of people mostly from places like EFF, Creative Commons, and other wonderful orgs. They do it because they want to make the world better, and because it's the right thing to do. Maybe you are too cynical and jaded to do something like that, but they aren't. Your opinions have zero basis in fact.

There is a difference between the people Google has employed to do the work and the corporate strategy behind the work. I have no doubt that the people you describe are truly passionate and dedicated.

But you don't see Google funding advocacy groups for initiatives that don't have a corresponding corporate benefit. Google's evolving stance on net neutrality is a case in point. An analogy would be a housing development firm supporting advocacy of home loans for the poor.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#198

Post by praxulus »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #137
prawks wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> passwords are either easy for computers to crack or hard for humans to remember Obligatory xkcd comic: https://xkcd.com/936/

I loathe whenever people post that comic for one simple reason. Although mathematically the password given in the comic has a higher entropy and would take more time to crack under normal circumstances, the problem is that it follows a very simple and easily describable pattern: smash (four) dictionary words together into a combination. Crackers will simply start using wordlist rules to generate large lists of meshed…

The whole point of the comic is that even with that known "simple pattern," you still get higher entropy than a normal password.

Obviously a random 64 character string would beat either of them, but if you're expecting a human to memorize a password, correct horse battery staple is clearly preferable.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#199

Post by mistercow »

kaoD wrote: post #192
rch wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't most wi-fi networks trivial to crack anyway?

Probably not, even for inexperienced users. WEP was flawed but it's been rolled out already and most ISPs configure routers with proper WPA-PSK and long passphrases.

That depends on the router and configuration. There's a flaw in WPS that makes it possible to quickly crack a router that has it enabled, even if it's using WPA/WPA2.

Re: Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world

#200

Post by ibudiallo »

guelo wrote: post #134

Your WiFi password is only useful for someone who is within 100 feet of your house. If you have federal agents surveilling you from 100 feet away you have way bigger problems than your WiFi password.

I always thought of this as a feature, and a good feature when your phone is reset.
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