Thread: about Wi-Fi network security

ven after the sensational news coverage about unsecured Wi-Fi networks being
used to send out terror threats, Mumbaikars are not taking adequate precautions to secure their home and office routers. A survey conducted by Deloitte has revealed some eye-opening statistics.

The findings show that just "wardriving"¬driving around the city using ordinary laptops with Wi-Fi adapters and freely available software-was enough to uncover a huge number of unsecure or inadequately secure routers. The study focused on two relatively simple parameters: the use of encryption, and the SSID broadcast status.
Out of over 6,700 networks detected in the one-week study period, 36 percent were found to be lacking any kind of security, while 52 percent had weak WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) encryption and only 12 percent used the more modern WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption scheme.



It was also found that 95 percent of the routers detected were broadcasting an SSID (Service Set IDentifier). or the name of the router, which would allow anyone with a laptop or compatible device within range to connect to it. Furthermore, 25 percent of routers broadcasting SSIDs were still using the factory default name, allowing potential hackers to identify the router's brand. While the study did not attempt to crack or even confirm the type of password each router was configured with, chances are that people who have left the SSIDs unchanged have also not changed the default password, leaving them even more vulnerable to malicious users.