At the turn of the Century (18 years ago) rumors began circulating on the Internet of mysterious symbols, made with chalk, appearing on sidewalks in front of business establishments. These strange symbols looked like this:
Were these strange symbols signs of an impending alien invasion? Mystic enchantments cast against the hapless businesses? Are birds accidentally walking in chalk?
No! The rumors told that they indicated the presence of nearby wireless LANs. Rather than using sophisticated software tools to detect the availability of Wi-Fi (the software built into your mobile device) one could merely look for these strange symbols. Creating these symbols to indicate a nearby wireless LAN is known as War Chalking.
Why is War Chalking Important?
In all seriousness, the practice of War Chalking was first described in a blog written in 2002 by Matt Jones. The author of that blog entry fancifully wanted to blend the technique of hobo markings with the new and exciting technology of Wi-Fi. It was a tongue-in-cheek article intended to draw attention to this emerging technology. But War Chalking captured the imagination of a few folks on the Internet. Some wrote the symbols on their nearby sidewalks and submitted the photos in responses to the blog as “proof” that War Chalking was real. But actually, War Chalking is no more real than the Loch Ness Monster.
Why do we care about this flight of fancy? Well, because one of the groups caught up in the fantasy is CompTIA. For many years, War Chalking has been listed in the objectives of the Network+ and Security+ exams as a wireless LAN threat. Students had to understand War Chalking and be ready to answer questions about it. Since War Chalking is rather obscure, that almost ensured that you would get a question about it (that’s how they roll). Thankfully, the latest version of Security+ (SY0-501) has dropped War Chalking from the objectives. However, the current version of Network+ still contains this item. Hopefully, CompTIA will remove it in the next version of the exam objectives.
Until then, those of you studying for the Network+ N10-006 exam be on the lookout for these strange symbols!