We seem to find out someone broke into a big company’s databases and left with millions of credit card numbers, passwords or other valuable information. Now a new kind of worry: someone could seize control of your wireless home network and steal your information from under your nose.

That’s the possibility raised by a couple of cyber security researchers from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. The problem, they say, is a weakness in the very protocol meant to make wi-fi secure. That protocol is called Wi-Fi Protected Access II, WPA2. And WPA2’s weakness could allow an attacker within physical range of your wi-fi network to make a copy of that network that they could then control. The researchers call their approach a key reinstallation attack, or KRACK.

It’s important to know that a KRACK attack remains a possibility for now. The scientists realized the threat while investigating wireless security. They’ll present this research on November 1st at the Computer and Communications Security (CCS) conference in Dallas and in December at the Black Hat Europe conference in London.

In their KRACK assumption, wireless devices would be fooled into connecting to the false network. And the attacker would be able to access all of the information that devices send and receive while connected to that network — even if that information has been coded. Android and Linux would be especially easy to attack because of how their encryption keys (密钥) are set.

One measure of protection against such an attack would be to make sure they you’ve installed the most up-to-date versions of your apps, browsers and wireless router software. Updated software is most likely to include the security patches (补丁) needed to avoid falling victim to a KRACK attack, because chances are that KRACK won’t remain simply a proof-of-concept for long.

【小题1】How can the attacker take advantage of the WPA 2’s weakness?

A．By installing a key.	B．By approaching physical range.
C．By copying and controlling the network.	D．By controlling the Internet users.

【小题2】What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

A．The false network contributes little to such attack.

B．If coded, the information will be free from danger.

C．Android is easy to attack for lack of encryption keys.

D．All of the information might be accessible to the attacker.

【小题3】How can people protect against KRACK attack?

A．Purchase the best-quality apps.	B．Install the latest relevant software.
C．Ignore the patches of the computers.	D．Keep the proof of KRACK long.

【小题4】In which section of a magazine may this text appear?

A．Sci-Tech Front.	B．Current Affairs.
C．Global Celebrities.	D．Financial Window.