The Cupertino Courier

Community

Local wireless company's mission: Staying private

By Cody Kraatz

Cupertino entrepreneur Dash Chang, CEO of AeON Wireless, has teamed with Cupertino businesses, the city of Cupertino and local newspaper publishers to provide wireless security at a number of existing WiFi access points in the city.

Cupertino has a reputation for being wired, with such high-tech companies as Apple and Symantec calling the city home and a citywide free wireless network provided by Mountain View-based MetroFi.

However, Chang said, the free WiFi at local coffee shops, city hall and all over the city has a significant drawback: a lack of security. His company created a software package called AeONsafe to fix that.

"Cupertino would be the first city in the world to go secure wireless in terms of public venue use," said Chang, who has been a Cupertino resident since 1977.

Chang said all a hacker needs to do is download any one of thousands of password sniffers available on the Internet in order to steal user-names and passwords just by sitting in a public venue.

"Theoretically, I could leave my computer sitting here, closed like this, and have the program running," said Chang. "In a week, I could collect hundreds, maybe thousands of passwords. And now that I've got it, I can go and log in somewhere else.

"You need broadband--everyone should get broadband service," said Chang. But, he added it also needs to be secure so identity thieves cannot access personal information.

Computers usually alert users that the network they are using is unsecured.

"I'm sensitive to the fact that I'm on an unsecured network," said Henry Bawers, working on his laptop in It's A Grind Coffee Shop on Stevens Creek Boulevard. Bawers said he has a virtual private network from his employer that encrypts his data transfer when he does work. But generally, he avoids doing work stuff on unsecured WiFi, he said.

"I'm careful about what I do. I wouldn't log onto my bank or anything like that, not on an unsecured server. Anything that has to do with my money or anybody else's money I wouldn't do. I'm not an expert, but I'm superstitious," said Bawer.

Another It's A Grind customer, Chris Sullivan, knows that when he logs onto the WiFi he shouldn't do anything personal like banking. It's his impression, though, that most of the people who can read data over WiFi are "pretty sophisticated."

"If a guy wants to hack onto my system he could, I know that," said Sullivan, who added that if a website takes longer than usual to load he closes it or stops it, worried that it means someone is sniffing him. "It could be my own paranoia.''

Down the street, at Barefoot Coffee Roasters on Stevens Creek Boulevard, AeONsafe is fully operational and successful.

"I don't have anything for them to steal anyway," said customer Natasha Campa Zepernick, who used the unsecured network at the shop before and never worried. But she likes the new system because it was easy to register the first time and she never has to do it again: AeONsafe will recognize her computer every time she comes back.

"We've had it for two months now, and it's been very reliable," said Jeremy Zimmer, the resident tech support expert at Barefoot. "Our experience has been great."

Zimmer even learned a thing or two about WiFi technology from Chang, who is now on his fourth high-tech startup.

Here's how it works:

Any visitor with a wireless-enabled laptop can connect to the city's free wireless network and will be directed to AeON's splash page, the screen that appears when a user first logs onto the Internet.

Microsoft and Google dominate the splash page market, Chang said, but in AeONsafe venues the page will display local news and advertisements frompublications such as the Cupertino Courier.

Web surfers will be asked to create an eight to 64-character network key, or password, which will be stored on AeON's servers in a secret location. The more the better, Chang said.

"It sounds like it would be a better experience for our WiFi users," said Jackie Streeter, owner of Coffee Society at the Cupertino Library, where she said people can access the network inside or outside, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

"Dash tells me that the experience is going to be even better. We're always looking for the next big thing," said Streeter, who co-owns that Coffee Society store with her son, Billy.

AeON has donated equipment for Cupertino's community hall, where the city council meets, and the service was scheduled to be launched at city hall on Jan. 25.

MetroFi offers no security on its free network, said Lucie Poulicakos, vice president of operations at MetroFi. After data reaches the neighborhood access point, which is usually a router attached to a streetlight, it is encrypted until MetroFi puts it out into the Internet, Poulicakos said.

Customers can get security by subscribing to MetroFi for $19.95 per month, which makes the service ad-free as well.

She recommended using a firewall to protect data between the computer and the wireless access point, a feature available on many computers sold today.

Chang founded AeON Wireless about a year ago with his partner Jing Wang, whom he met when they were both consultants for Tsinghua University in Beijing. Since then, about 20 venues in Cupertino have jumped online, Chang said.

In the past couple of weeks, several new venues have made deals to use AeONsafe, including a Chrysler dealership in Sunnyvale.

"Now, our footprint in Cupertino is larger than AT&T's and larger than T-mobile's footprint in Cupertino," Chang said.

Where to go

The following are among the AeOnsafe public venues. Most are in Cupertino:

Barefoot Coffee Roasters, 5237 Stevens Creek Blvd.; Britannia Arms, 1087 De Anza Blvd.; Caffé Adria, 6174 Bollinger Road; Central Perk Coffee, 3143 Stevens Creek Blvd.; The City of Cupertino, 10300 Torre Ave.; Coffee Society at the Cupertino Library, 10800 Torre Ave.; Exit Realty, 5570 Sanchez Drive No. 200 in San Jose; Fontana's Italian restaurant, 20840 Stevens Creek Blvd No. 310; Hobee's California Restaurant, 21267 Stevens Creek Blvd. near Highway 85; It's A Grind Café, 19622 Stevens Creek Blvd.; J&J Hawaiian Barbecue, 20950 Stevens Creek Blvd. and 10745 S. De Anza Blvd.; Karin's Place, 14440 Big Basin Way No. 10; Lee's Sandwich, 20363 Stevens Creek Blvd.; Living Room, 12241 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Ave.; MegaByte Pizza Co., 5623 Silver Creek Valley Road; Sunnyvale Chrysler on El Camino Real; Vallco Fashion Park at Interstate 280 and N. Wolfe Road; and Verde Tea Café, 19929 Stevens Creek Blvd.

To suggest another WiFi venue ,contact AeON Wireless at contact@aeonsafe.com. Visit AeONsafe online at www.aeonsafe.com.