Drive-by hacking in the streets of London. With Pringles.

European peoples are far more sophisticated than their American brethren. This is a simple fact. Minus the French, of course, who feel the need to run and hide and stab people in the back. But I digress.

While US streets are still plagued by gangsta drive-by shootings, hoodlums in London are taking their cars on hacking expeditions, in what is now being called “war-driving”. This is, of course, a play on “war-dialing”, a term coined over a decade ago to signify a computer system outfitted with software and a modem that dials a large set of phone numbers, in succession, so that it may happen to stumble upon a computer system tied to the other end of the phone line. In this way, hackers were able to find computer systems that would be prime targets for infilitration.

War-driving is no different, only instead of a desktop, we have a notebook, and instead of a modem, we have wireless NICs, and instead of Matthew Broderick getting his ass-kicked by The Man, we have some unknown guy getting his ass kicked by John Travolta. The idea is to scan for open, wireless networks while cruising down the street, and then taking advantage of whatever holes you find. And by “taking advantage of whatever holes you find”, I do not mean “giving her the Anal Delight”.

The beauty of this practice is not the ridiculous number of unsecured wireless networks in certain commercial districts (which we reported on some time ago), but rather that some resourceful hackers are using Pringles cans to build Yagi antennas to aid them. These antennas “direct” the scan to pick up on weaker signals, and can be built out of pretty much any conical “thing”. Now’s the time to buy stock in Procter & Gamble.

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