Secure Your Wireless Network....With Paint

012609 wifi paint.jpg Why is it that not everyone has a secure wireless network at home? Raise your hand if you are reading this right now and you don't....or don't know. Is it because you just can't be bothered to remember a password? Or have you tried all the typical options but are still having more trouble than success? Well it looks like now you can do much better as long as you know how to pick up a paint brush.

Image via warningtheday's Flickr

Being developed by Japanese researchers as a cheap security solution for corporate IT departments, this special paint uses embedded aluminum-iron oxide to keep the bouncing Wifi signals inside the building, or in our case, our house.

According to the researchers, the composition of the new material somehow distorts the bonds between iron and oxygen from their usual shape, which they believe explains the material's magnetic properties. They feel that further study, would lead to identifying new metal oxides that can absorb EM waves at even higher frequencies.

Put simply, the days of your next door neighbors piggybacking on your wi-fi signal are over, and you will never need tech support. Although you can't just run and pick up a gallon of this paint just yet, it appears that manufacturing it is actually really cheap. Hopefully this means it becomes an actual option for us everyday folks.

-via PC World

Comments (6)

Should assume it's probably going to block your cellphone signal too?

posted by bobl on January 26th 2009 at 11:40am
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For it to work, you'd have to paint your ceiling, floors, doors, and windows in addition to your walls. And yeah, forget talking on your cell phone or listening to a radio inside the house.

Seems to me that taking a few minutes to set up security on your router or write down a password (on a post-it note stuck to your laptop, for example) is a heck of a lot easier than painting your whole house.

posted by Aimi on January 26th 2009 at 12:26pm
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Bad idea. Iron and aluminum oxide, in the right mixture, is also known as thermite. See also: Mythbusters and Brainiac.

And yeah, it'll probably kill your cell reception.

posted by kvh on January 26th 2009 at 1:16pm
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so no more tin foil hats !
-rmccurdy_com

posted by operat0r on January 27th 2009 at 3:16am
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wow no one will steal my wi-fi...while I slowly poison myself

posted by EKSODYS on January 27th 2009 at 8:46am
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or you could just live in a cave!

posted by cscamp20 on January 28th 2009 at 5:48pm
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