By sinha on 22, October, 2008 | Channel: Digital India

88% of Mumbai Wireless Networks are open for hackers

Now this is something that sounds really scary!

Deloitte studied the Mumbai wireless networks and here are some interesting results:

  • Of the total networks sampled (6700), around 36% appeared to be unprotected i.e. not having any encryption on them.
  • 52% were using low level of protection i.e Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption
  • Only 12% networks were using the more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or WPA2.
  • 1852 appeared to be business wireless networks. Of these, 42% appeared to have no
    encryption at all.
  • 2815 seemed to be residential wireless networks based on nomenclature of the SSID broadcast. Of these, 26% appeared to have no encryption.

So, essentially 88% are relatively easy to compromise – something that owners need to really worry about (especially given the latest case on terrorist’s hacking expertise where they used open wi-fi signals to send emails).

What do you think is the root cause? Lack of awareness?

Download the pdf

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    • comment(s) on 88% of Mumbai Wireless Networks are open for hackers

    5 Responses to 88% of Mumbai Wireless Networks are open for hackers

    1. Raxit says:
      October 22, 2008 at 11:23 PM

      v.much simillar stuff discussed during owasp meet, even it is not related to app security…its v.imp !

      -raxit

      Reply
    2. Vimal George says:
      October 23, 2008 at 2:32 AM

      geezus. I didn’t know wifi was that popular in our metros. The other day I got nervous when i found an open hotspot near the secretariat building in Trivandrum, that my phone had auto-logged-on to. I dont want the desi gestapo knocking down my door.

      Reply
    3. Raseel says:
      October 23, 2008 at 10:15 AM

      I think the primary reason for all the Open networks, apart from sheer ignorance, is the fact that we do not have AS MANY war-drivers. The number of people who will actually piggy-back on alien wifi networks is really low, since comparatively fewer people will use Wifi in the first place.
      Very few people are aware of the fact the WEP can be cracked in under 2 minutes. Heck !! Very few people know , or want to know the differences between WEP and WPA.

      Also, the people who keep this alleged Open security are sometimes smart enough to use other means to restrict access , such as :
      - Restrict number of clients that can be connected
      - Restrict using MAC addresses
      - Restrict using less DHCP address pool
      All the above are seemingly more convenient since these options make sense for a lay user when setting it through his Router’s UI.

      Reply

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