I remember there was a time (maybe early '10s) when you could crack Wi-Fi passwords fairly easily, esp. those of the WEP variety. I did it a few times, mainly to speed up downloading time (run a couple of VMs, each with a Wi-Fi stick connected to a neighbor's cracked Wi-Fi). 3 connections simultaneously downloading stuff. Used Kali Linux to do the cracking. Fun times. Now it's not so easy, probably much harder than I can hope I'm capable of. For my own router, I use a self-chosen, strong password and have all my Wi-Fi devices on the router's MAC-address white list, although I have a feeling all these can easily be defeated by a determined attacker, considering the usually poor f/w programming in those provider-supplied routers.
Indeed. It's not so easy over the air, but if an attacker gets LAN access, there are some more vulnerabilities, especially with branded firmware in WIFI routers, which gets modified by the provider before pushed to the devices, delaying important security fixes.
Sensitive nodes need to run in their own networks, protected by hardware firewalls with IDS if connected to the web. They should not even be connected to any WIFI.
In my case, neighbors are not near enough. Attackers would have to hide on my property to get in WIFI range. I probably would easily get paranoid in a city appartment/flat.
OT: I took the time to measure the dimensions of my custom "laptop holder" in the basement today. I can install any Laptop that is less than 20cm deep, so i can replace the eeePC with an old 12" netbook from my mother. At least the bigger screen will be worth it, while the cheap, slow laptop must be sped up with an internal SSD. Then i can continue with the milling and don't have to rush it to look for a newer windows10/11 Netbook of about the same size. All good.