Wi-Fi is hot, security is not

With a laptop perched in the passenger seat of his Toyota 4Runner and a special antenna on the roof, Mike Outmesguine ventured off to sniff out wireless networks between Los Angeles and San Francisco. He got a big whiff of insecurity.

While his 800-mile drive confirmed that the number of wireless networks is growing explosively, he also found that only a third used basic encryption -- a key security measure. In fact, in nearly 40 per cent of the networks not a single change had been made to the gear's wide-open default settings.

"They took it out of the box, powered it up, and it worked. And they left it alone," said Outmesguine, who owns a technical services company. He frequently goes out on such "wardrives" in search of insecure networks. And while Outmesguine says he doesn't try to break in, others aren't so benign.

While Wi-Fi is hot, security is not.

Even the makers of Wi-Fi routers, access points and other gadgets privately say that as many as 80 per cent of home users don't bother to enable basic encryption or other protections against connection theft, eavesdropping and network invasion.
Experts say that while Wi-Fi hardware makers have made initial set-up easy, the enabling of security is anything but. Meanwhile, average users are no longer tech savvy. The gadgets are mainstream, appearing on the shelves of Wal-Mart and other mass retailers.

During his wardrive, Outmesguine counted 3,600 hot spots, compared with 100 on the same route in 2000. Worldwide, makers of Wi-Fi gear for homes and small offices posted sales of more than $US1.3 billion in 2003, a 43 per cent jump over 2002, according to Synergy Research Group.

The result? A lot of wide-open networks that offer anyone within range of the Wi-Fi signal free access to a high-speed internet connection. Any hacking is unlikely to be noticed, while illegal activity would be traceable only to the name on the internet account.

To make matters worse, users who don't secure their networks are often the very people who don't keep their computers up to date with the latest security patches and antivirus software.