Wi-Fi spots susceptible to data theft, says Deloitte

HUNDREDS OF commercial wireless hotspots in Dublin, Limerick and Cork are insecure, leaving users susceptible to having data such as usernames, passwords and bank account details revealed to other users on the network.

An annual “war walk” by consultants Deloitte has found that 70 per cent of public wireless networks have no encryption in place, while 80 per cent are “insecure”, meaning they have no encryption or use the WEP standard which is trivial to crack.
The annual “war walk”, which involves walking down commercial streets in the centre of Dublin, Cork and Limerick and scanning for available Wi-Fi networks, found that, of 6,545 networks discovered, 56 per cent were insecure.
“These include many well-known wireless hotspot providers, as well as the wireless networks at many well-known hotels, restaurants and conference centres,” the Deloitte report says. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times