Today Slashdot linked to an article about the popular Wi-Fi Pineapple as well as how to defend yourself against what it does.  Depending on what you are using it for, the Wi-Fi Pineapple is either a great tool for penetration testing networks you want to ensure are secure, or a way of gaining access to networks that haven't been fully secured.  It has been around for almost a decade and the hardware is quite simple, the only real difference between it and the wireless router you use is that the Pineapple has multiple radios so it can interface with hundreds of devices simultaneously.  Thanks to the software written for the device, even someone with very little understanding of network security can use it to conduct man in the middle attacks.  Thankfully there are ways to protect yourself from it and other attacks which you can read about by following the links in the Slashdot post.

"The Wi-Fi Pineapple is a cheap modified wireless router enables anyone to execute sophisticated exploits on Wi-Fi networks with little to no networking expertise. A report in Motherboard explains how it can be used to run a Wall of Sheep and execute a man-in-the-middle attack, as well as how you can protect yourself from Pineapple exploits when you're connected to public Wi-Fi."

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