Is your access point secure?
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June 15th, 2007 | Security, Wi-Fi | 1 Comment »
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Starting in 2002, RSA, the security division of EMC, has been doing periodic checks and surveys of wireless networks used in large cities to measure the changes in their use. In 2007, they found a significantly larger amount of networks going live. The only problem is that while the use of network security technology is also up, it’s not enough to match the level of current wireless network expansion.
“We drive the same route in New York, London and Paris,” comments Toffer Winslow, vice president of product management and marketing at RSA. “We record the total number of access points we see. We can determine things like the encryption tech they’re using, if defaults have changed, that kind of thing,” all data collected used free, and easily used applications. The similarities in the route makes it easy to draw conclusions from the data collected.
From the data taken, the amount of access points on the routes observed took a huge jump. Paris increased by 44%, New York by 49%, and London with the most at 160%! The RSA also notes that the amount of access points that are in use for business in London was up by 180%!
Although the amount of access points in use is up, so is the number of encryption on the access points. Not enough to keep up with the number of access points. From the data taken, use of WEP encryption or WPA/802.11i in London only rose 6% (to 81%) in London and about 2% in Paris and New York(to 76% and 80%). Although not all are encrypted, it is still better than in 2004 when RSA found that only 2/3 of London and Paris access points were encrypted.
Not only do access points lack in encryption, but business access points face similar problems. “The thing that boggles my mind is in 2007, one quarter to one fifth of businesses have no encryption at all,” comments Winslow. Its not only a problem of no encryption, but also a problem of lazy encryption. RSA found that 30% of access points had default passwords installed on their networks.Winslow comments on the problem saying, “A lot of unsophisticated users make themselves vulnerable.”
Obviously there a problem with a lack of education on network security which needs to be addressed in the coming years.
Would you like to know more about how Titan Hotspots protects hotspot users with secure Wi-Fi hotspots using the latest security technologies? Read about it on the features page or just give us a call! Toll-Free: 1 (800) 616-7609.