Neil Ford writes:
It’s axiomatic that public Wi-Fi is unsecure – as was demonstrated earlier this year when a seven-year-old child hacked a coffee shop network in minutes. Public hotspots are unsecured to allow users to log on, and as an ordinary customer you can’t verify the legitimacy of a network when you’ve only got its SSID (service set identifier) or name to act on. There’s absolutely nothing to say that the network named after your favourite coffee shop corresponds in any way with the outlet in which you sit, supping a doppio, swiping through Twitter. You click and hope – if you even think about it at all. Most people don’t. An Ofcom report last October found that 78% of those who use public Wi-Fi used a free connection. 77% of respondents said they were unconcerned about security when doing so.
In an interesting article published by Business Insider last week, Maurits Martijn describes what happened when ethical hacker Wouter Slotboom demonstrated how to harvest data from such unsuspecting – or unconcerned – users.
Read more on IT Governance.