Behind Wi-Fi Lines!

I came across this very interesting article about Wi-Fi hacking and decided to give it a closer look. After all who doesnt like hacking ? ( CAUTION: getting into your gf's email account and spying on her emails and contact list is STALKING).
Yes ,so getting back to the article , it was on cyber-terrorism.The recent terror email threats sent from the Wi-Fi connection of an American residing in Navi Mumbai and surpisingly another one from Mumbai's well-known Khalsa College could possibly be examples highlighting this new sphere of terrorism. This is termed as ' Wardriving' which means to search for unsecured Wi-Fi networks using a notebook or a PDA(Personal Digital Assistant) phone. Now connecting to this network and usings its services without any clear authorization is called 'piggybacking' . What does this mean ? To simplify it further is like a terroist finding a 'free unlimited purchase' coupon to the nearest gun-shop.
The question arising now would be , ' Is it not possible to trace the wardriver back once he has entered the Wi-Fi network' ?. To be frank , very difficult unless caught in the process of entering the network. Once in the network , he used the host IP. In other words, he manages to lose his own identity and now works with the borrowed identity of the host. Scary ? to make matters much worse , you get softwares for wardriving absolutely free on the internet!
So whats the difference between this and hacking ? In this , open wireless networks can be accessed without any authentication without attracting attention of the actual owner of the network. This is very different from hacking, which hardly requires physical proximity to the target network or computer. This is a far more tedious process and can eventually be traced back to the hacker, while in the case of an unprotected wireless network, the intruder is virtually untraceable.
So what part can you play to be a secure host? Secure wireless media usage, hardening wireless routers (securing WAP and Wireless connection) and access points, enable firewall on wireless routers.