Nintendo DS Wi-Fi uses obsolete WEP security

Nintendo DS’s Wi-Fi capabilities have been unveiled

. Interesting features include:

Save settings for up to three connections
Auto-detection of available wi-fi networks
Support for primary and secondary DNS servers
Support for DHCP and static IP addresses
Support for WEP (but not WPA!) security
This last item is going to earn the system some real bronx cheers. According to security experts, WEP is an obsolete protocol for securing wireless data transmissions. Earlier this year, the FBI gave demonstrated that they could crack open a “WEP-protected network in 3 minutes using publicly available tools” (source).

So what’s the big deal if someone’s snooping on your Mario Kart race? There’s probably not too much risk, as most hackers are going to be looking for the juicy stuff, like people signing in to their PayPal accounts or engaging in PictoChat cyber. This does expose the DS to man-in-the-middle and hijacking attacks, but does that mean that viruses and bricking trojans can be introduced to game devices via wireless attack?

What I'm worried about is the fact that on my home wireless system I have to change the security from WPA to WEP in order to use Mario Kart online - the same system that I use my laptop with.

Therefore, I probably won't be using any DS online functionality.