Snarfing

Snarfing is information theft or data manipulation in wireless local networks, such as WLANs or WPANs.

Etymology

The English term snarf is probably a portmanteau of snort ( aufschnupfen ) and scarf ( swallow ) and is used in everyday language more or less a synonym for it.

In the American television series Trollz there is a cartoon character named Snarf. The Snarf is usually a cute, little creatures with a very sensitive nose, but can turn into an incurable hungry monster which can evacuate to forage through even large obstacles. Therefore, snarfing is colloquially now used in English for pilfer or steal.

Operation

In a figurative sense, the information technology is meant by snarfing that in wireless networks first wireless devices are detected and then tries to attack them by vulnerabilities are exploited in the rule. The Snarfer For example, pretend another network node as Janus attacker and spy on information and data. A particularly high risk of becoming a victim of a Snarfers, consists in so-called hot spots where wireless access to networks is granted in the public space.

Snarfing first appeared in Bluetooth devices, which speaks in this context of Bluesnarfing.

Defensive measures

Snarfing can with appropriate measures of software and hardware to increase the information security are being undermined drastically such as the use of passwords and encryption, as well as the qualified allocation of access rights.