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Sydney Has 10,000 Unsecured Wi-Fi Points

Posted by samzenpus on from the throw-a-dart dept.

daria42 writes "A bunch of researchers have been driving around Sydney, Australia, and scanning for unsecured Wi-Fi networks. You'd think that in this day and age, with all that we've learned about security, that Wi-Fi security would be almost universal ... but the truth is that about 2.6 percent don't even have basic password protection. Extrapolating a little, that adds up to 10,000 unsecured Wi-Fi networks across Sydney alone."

3 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. How many of those were buinesses..... by robthebloke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    .. .providing a nice free service for their customers? heck, I even use the free unsecured internet access on the bus these days!

    1. Re:How many of those were buinesses..... by Cimexus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That was my thought at first too. Are some of them businesses? Or are some of them 'open' (in terms of not having a WEP/WPA password) but actually still require further authentication once connected (e.g. a VPN or a gateway which requires a username/password).

      However now that I read TFA, I see that the observations were made only in residential areas (i.e. suburban streets). You would not expect to find many businesses in these areas. I'm sure a couple might have been, but not that many. So yeah it'll mostly be clueless people who haven't secured their home WiFi networks, it seems.

      10,000 points in a city the size of Sydney is hardly that amazing though...

  2. Hell we have a few thousand on campus by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We'll probably have 10,000 or more when done. The goal is to have a complete coverage network, I'm talking everywhere, no drops. The building I work in has a couple hundred (we actually found a bug in old Intel wireless drivers, they couldn't handle over 99 visible APs). Every one has an unsecured network on it. The reason is we wish to provide visitors and guests with an easy way to get on the Internet. It is limited, web only, speed filters and so on, but it is open. The same APs also have secured networks on them, there is a WPA2-Enterprise network that you can access with your campus login and password that then has no speed or port restrictions, but of course you need a campus login. There is a VoIP network too (the reason for total coverage) but it is just for testing at this point.

    It has nothing to do with being unaware of security, everything to do with not being assholes. A PSK security system would be worthless. It would be an unadministratable nightmare to try and change the password often enough and distribute it to do any good. Enterprise security works great for students, employees, and so on but isn't very helpful when you are talking guests, or just the public who wants to use our facilities (and we are a public institution and so have a duty to them). So open is the answer. You get on, it directs you to a "You agree to this shit," page, and away you go.