BALTIMORE -- Last year, more than 4,500 people had their identity stolen in Maryland, but getting access to your personal information can be as easy as cruising through your neighborhood.

With the right equipment, people can hack into your wireless computer system without you even knowing it. Wardriving is an activity consisting of driving around with a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop or a PDA in a vehicle and detecting Wi-Fi wireless networks.

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More About Wardriving

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According to Wikipedia, the average wardriver is typically only out to log and collect information from the access points they find while driving. However, some people are concerned about identity theft from their unsecured computers.

In the United States, accessing the files on an open network is illegal under both federal and state laws, as is using the Internet connection of an open wireless network.

To protect your computer, experts said make sure you set your router to WEP encryption -- short for Wired Equivalent Privacy, a security protocol for wireless local area networks -- and make sure your firewall is turned on. They said it will cost you just around a couple hundred bucks to make sure your system is secure.

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