The BBC's Watchdog consumer affairs TV show last night revealed that three of the UK's top wireless ( Wi-Fi Hotspot ) broadband operators , including BT Openzone , The Cloud and T-Mobile , are vulnerable to hacking attacks. Internet security firm Garlik states that, over the last year, there has been a 207% increase in 'account takeover fraud', where criminals access existing accounts rather than using stolen identities.

The TV show used equipment readily available on the internet to hijack wireless traffic at a variety of hotspots, while experts working with the programme-makers could have been able to take control of other hotspot users' Internet accounts. The situation is similar to a recent study by TalkTalk , which highlighted the ease of hijacking Wi-Fi connections for illegal downloads (here).




All of the operators highlighted in Watchdog's report recommended using a secure remote access virtual private network (VPN) to protect against data interception, though an average Joe surfer is unlikely to be familiar with this solution. The operators are now working to better educate their users.

It's also good practice to use WPA2 encryption on your network and a longer passkey that mixes numbers and letters. Admittedly if the Wi-Fi Hotspot does not support WPA2 then there is not much you can do except complain in the hope of getting that changed. Our 2008 'Top 10 Wireless (Wi-Fi) Security Tips' article also includes some additional tips.