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Some 12% of Consumers 'Borrow' Unsecured Wi-Fi
alphadogg writes "Despite the fact that it's often considered an illegal act, a sizeable percentage of the UK/US internet-using population 'borrows' unsecured Wi-Fi access. This is according to a study conducted by the group Accenture. 'The Accenture study found that computer users are still engaging in some unsafe computing practices. Nearly half of all respondents said that they used the same password for all of their online accounts, and only a quarter of them have ever encrypted files on their computers.'" My guess is the actual figure is higher than that.
When you set up your wireless network you can choose whether to allow open access or not. If the network's owner has specified that anyone can use it, why is it bad to do so? I have my wireless router at home set up for open access and it does me no harm if others use it for occasional web browsing. The only flaw is that many routers don't have a way to prioritize or cap usage so that my work isn't slowed down by other people's Bittorrenting.
Yes, it's sent unencrypted - just like network traffic over those old-fashioned things called wires. We all know to use https and ssh for secure connections anyway.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
This is a pretty inane study- there is a huge difference between occasionally looking for an open wireless when away from home to browse and using a neighbor's open wireless as your main pipe. And the comments about identity theft are ridiculous, as most sensible people adjust their browsing/net use when using unknown networks to reflect their uncertainty in its security.
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
"Nearly half of all respondents said that they used the same password for all of their online accounts..." I have statistical evidence (sample size of a little over 5000) that proves that says that the percentage is MUCH higher...more like 80-85%. We talk all the time about privacy, net security, identity theft, etc., but this something that is VERY often overlooked. There are many LAMP projects out there (mostly put together by high schoolers or ambitious university freshmen) that collect an email and a password for their own user authentication and then don't encrypt their users' passwords in database. Dishonest 15 year-old admin + one select query on his own database and then approx 80% of the time you have access to the users' email account. From there, the sky's the limit. Online banking, university login accounts, etc. Troubling to say the least. We need a LOT more education of stupid kids that don't know how to encrypt passwords safely in their DB. Furthermore, we need to remember good old fashion ethics in this stuff.
It always seemed odd to me that this was illegal, when in reality you are asking for and getting permission. That is, as everyone here would know, your laptop (for example) has to ask the wireless router for permission to connect. The router then grants permission and allocates an IP, all within its normal operating process (i.e., no trickery or hacking involved). It is not a passive process, like, say, entering an unlocked home, in which the house is passively exploited.
I came across an unsecured network with strong signal a while ago. Turned out to be someone across the street. They had 4 Windows systems attached, with C: drives shared, unprotected. I also found a shared printer on their network.
I warned them by printing a page on that shared printer, identifying myself and describing the problem. Next day the access point was secure..
To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
Living in an apartment, I was actually surprised with the opposite. It appears that there are 20 or so wireless networks with good signal strength in range, and I am in a corner of the building. However, there is not a single network that isn't using some form of encryption. I don't know if this is typical, but all the supposed luddites living in this building (a combination of college/university age couples and 50+ year old singles) have obviously figured their wireless routers out.
The other premise upon which people base a lot of paranoia regarding network and personal computer security is the assumption that they possess something worth stealing. There are many effective credit card fraud methods in use that don't require any sort of computer exploitation, but rather involve "social engineering." What other information does the average person have on his PC that is of value? Of course I would be disturbed if somebody managed to obtain my entire photograph library, but that is of so little value to somebody else, I doubt very much that any significant effort would be put towards obtaining it.
Nearly half of all respondents said that they used the same password for all of their online accounts
Like newspaper registrations? Rather than bother with bugmenot, I just register using bogus data. My password is 111111. Because I really don't give a shit about a newspaper registration. It has nothing whatever to do with security. The Chicago Tribune has no CC#s, SS#s or any other real, personally identifiable information about me; I don't even know why they bother.
Yet this is somehow deemed a "Security risk." And I don't send encrypted data; if it's sensitive information I'll send it snail mail.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
...in the area.
I set my parents house up with secured wifi 3 years ago... Last year my parents got a new laptop, and went about using wifi. 6 months pass. They get a new printer... I tell them that they can print from their laptop, over the network, and try to talk my dad through setting it up... After much confusion, I realize they are not on the wifi network that I set up for them, but one of their neigbhors...
My parents are smart, they just didn't grow up using computers, and don't think about the kind of things that most slashdot users think about... typical boomers... I bet 12% (or more) of laptop users steal wifi, without even knowing it...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
From playing with a friend's WinXP laptop over the weekend, I can see how it happens: Windows will automatically connect to any network it can find, even peer-to-peer. I'm sure this behavior can be disabled, but it's probably set up that way by default by the manufacturers to make it easier for users. I realize this is old news to most people, but I don't use WinXP very often and was a bit surprised to see it connect to a peer-to-peer network.
(My laptop has WinXP on it, but it's an older laptop - 4 years - and it uses Atheros software to connect and only attempts to connect to the network I activate. Under Linux, my usual OS, I set up a script for it to connect to the SSID I specify.)
Plus, people do use others access points intentionally - some friends of mine were doing it over the weekend when we were camping at a spot that didn't have any internet access.