The Unboxing Video (or article)
Unboxing: the new geek porn
Having been sent a link to one (that I might have an interest in as it was a pictorial about an Asus eee 901) TF would have to agree! This was not a video however.
The Register is not known for being taken that serious and this article (see link below) is from Dec 2006
While being rather immature (both in the desire to make and post them with the interest that they seem to garner) the videos are largely really boring with inane commentary.
However, particularly amusing (and really stupid) are those who unbox their new Windows PC and film the switch on and setup. Often when the long a tedious Windows installation starts (often up to two hours!) the commentator starts to babble and finally gives up and puts the pc away in the background for later!
Bogus "How-to" Videos
Pick an obscure task - like hacking into your neighbours WiFi network using a cell phone and Aircrack and then make a movie showing you doing so (the blurryier the better!)
The videoes that you will find on YouTube are likely to be nothing more than hoaxes, however, some have used this medium reasonably effectively to get traffic to their websites. This does not mean that thet enterprises are anymore existential than Muse Technologies of Akron, Ohio!
WEP WPA Dictionary Attacks on WiFi Networks
This text is a repost of the posting on my blog (December 2009)- technology-muse.blogspot.com
The YouTube video showing the cracking of a WiFi network is a sham!What is shown is a dictionary attack on a network where the SSID was probably known before hand - this is not difficult to determine using the aircrack-ng suite of cracking tools - the dictionary attack takes the form of the injection of words from a dictionary starting with the letter "A". It just so happens that the network shown being hacked was one with a password that was in the dictionary used by the injection software and also started with the letter "A"
That is why the WPA passphrase was determined in such a short time.
The question is "Who uses a pass phrase for their wireless networks WPA or WPA2 that would be in ANY known dictionary?" - if they are seriously trying to stop hackers gaining access to their systems? We are all encouraged to use password that are "Strong" - words and character strings that are not found in dictionaries (i.e. not real words) - and a combination of alpha numeric (both upper and lower case), even punctuation symbols.
If this is the case then a "brute-force" dictionary attack would NEVER gain access to your WiFi network. The only networks that you are likely to access are those run by people who don't have a clue!
YouTube postings of these types are probably more to do with the desire to be famous for somethong or other rather than being informational in any way.
Links:
- Unboxing: the new geek porn - from The Register theregister dot co dot uk
