If you're concerned about hackers snooping on your home Wi-Fi network, the solution may be just a simple high-tech home decorating tip away.
French researchers have developed a revolutionary wallpaper that prevents Wi-Fi waves from leaving the confines of the room, thus keeping your home network safe from outside intrusions, the French website L'Informaticien reported.
The wallpaper is covered with a geometric overlay consisting of ink containing silver particles that filter out three different electromagnetic frequencies of a wireless local area network (LAN) while still letting in cellphone signals.
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"A wireless network is provided with protections that can be cracked by the crafty," Pierre Lemaitre-Auger, a researcher at the Grenoble Institute of Technology, explained. "If you put wallpaper on the walls around an office or apartment, your Wi-Fi works well but it cannot be hacked."
It sounds simple, but the wallpaper could be an effective measure against attackers who deploy an array of tactics, from wardriving cars to Wi-Fi-sniffing drones, to crack people's unprotected home networks.
The paper was developed by a four-person team from the Grenoble school and the Centre Technique du Papier, and is scheduled to go on sale in 2013.