Wi-Fi woes? Study says there are holes in system

Flyers swear by high-speed wireless these days. It’s everywhere: airports, hotel rooms, shops, and restaurants. Problem is, the system could have some holes.

A study by Gartner Mobile and Wireless AirTight Networks finds Wi-Fi networks in some ticketing systems, shops, baggage systems and restaurants to be “poorly secured”. The study assessed the security risks for laptop users at 14 airports in the United States, Canada and Asia.

Private non-hotspot networks appear the most vulnerable. AirTight found 77 percent of those networks it studied were non-hotspot (i.e., private). Of those, a whopping 80 percent were either unsecured or employed what’s called WEP encryption. AirTight asserts that species or protection is, “fatally flawed”.

“If hackers can bring down he power grid in several cities, as reported by the CIA, how easy would it be for them to create havoc with an unsecured baggage system?,” asks Sri Sundaralingam, AirTight’s Senior Director of Product Management. “Imagine the ripple effect at an airport like [London] Heathrow (LHR) or [Chicago] O’Hare (ORD) if someone could work their way into the baggage system and reroute luggage all over the world.”

Another of the study’s key findings: 10 percent of the laptops detected during the scans it conducted were infected with a viral Wi-Fi Network, rendering their users vulnerable to data leakage and identity theft.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler

Comments

[Della Lowe]

Glad you wrote up our study. Just a little nit. The study was done by AirTight Networks not by Gartner. AirTight just announced the results at Gartner Mobile and Wireless. AirTight is happy to discuss the study in depth with interested parties.