Having an unsecure network is like allowing someone to come in to your house, plug a network cable in to your router & start browsing the net as they , you wouldnt do it! Which is why you shouldnt leave a wireless network unsecure, it is inviting people to connect to it & do any of the following:
Many people enjoy the flexibility of a wireless network & love the fact they can sit in their garden with their laptop & check their email. Whilst wireless networking is indeed a useful technology it does come with its downsides. The truth is plenty of people are not tech savvy & will setup their wireless networking without implementing any wireless security, the same group of people are unaware of the large threat to private information & their net connections that arise from the no wireless security.
1: Download illegal content.
2: Use the connection for malicious activity
3: Intercept local traffic & have the ability to check what sites your visiting, your private information & even passwords.
This is the beginning. There’s plenty of horror stories of peoples wireless networks being used & abused with criminal activities happening leaving the owner of the network responsible!
So always implement Wireless Security, make sure that you are using a wireless key, preferably WPA or WPA2 as WEP is vulnerable & can be cracked in a few minutes with freely available tools from the net.
This is why wireless security is so important, if you leave your network open then your asking for trouble, & you wont even know its happening! People can access your network from several houses down the street & you would be none the wiser.
