Posted: 11th Aug, 2003 By: MarkJ
Despite new security systems, such as Wired Equivalent Privacy / Wi-Fi Protected Access, industry analysts have found that broadband wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) hotspots are still vulnerable to hackers:
According to analyst the Butler Group, existing security measures built into 802.11x wireless infrastructures is simply not good enough to protect data.
"Forget Wired Equivalent Privacy and the new Wi-Fi Protected Access for public Wi-Fi hotspots; we must assume that any unencrypted traffic transmitted or received by our wireless adaptor is being sniffed by someone, somewhere," the analyst said in its latest review of the industry.
"There's no doubt that Wi-Fi sniffing is easy to do - maybe someone will be sniffing the next wireless network you connect to. But the real question is, what will that someone do with the information they sniff?"The
VNUNet item suggests that the use of 'client-encryption' technology on all PCs, laptops, and mobile devices could help.