Van Hauser (THC) finds open Wi-Fi networks in Manila

DRIVING through the central business district of Makati all the way to Malate in Manila, a German whitehat hacker discovered that only 15 of the 66 wireless access points or wireless local area networks located in these two areas were "encrypted."

"The encyrption levels of these access points were not even secure," said the German whitehat hacker known as Van Hauser.
Van Hauser was in Manila as one of the experts invited to the third annual Philippine Information Technology Security Conference.

Showing the lack of security in the wireless local area networks (WLAN) of corporate firms in the Philippines, Van Hauser disclosed that the “wardriving” he conducted from Makati to Malate easily identified WLANs that were open to anyone armed with a laptop and software who wanted to detect wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) hotspots.

Wardriving is the process of scanning for wireless access points while driving by certain areas known to have such WLANs, said Van Hauser.