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30 Oct 2009
The BBC's Watchdog programme claims to have exposed security weaknesses in many of the UK's wireless hotspots.
The consumer affairs show managed to hack into several accounts and send and receive emails using sophisticated but readily available snooping tools, and a coffee shop Wi-Fi connection.
The researchers penetrated the accounts of two audience members and Rav Wilding, an ex-policeman and current Crimewatch presenter. The programme identified hotspots operated by BT Openzone, The Cloud and T-Mobile as being at risk.
Tom Illube, chief executive at internet security firm Garlik, appeared on the show and urged people to use wireless hotspots with caution. He recommended the use of a virtual private network (VPN), but acknowledged that this might be too technical for most users.
The hotspot providers agreed that people should embrace such tools, and made a number of recommendations.
"We constantly review our approach to security and there will now be a direct link to security guidance from the BT Openzone landing page," said BT. "We are also reviewing our proactive approach to providing secure and user-friendly authentication."
The Cloud added: "Our security information, accessible via our web site and landing page, recommends the use of VPN technology. However we do recognise that they are not currently user friendly, especially for consumers."
Finally, T-Mobile said: "We have revised the wording on the hotspot landing page to emphasise the use of a VPN connection for optimal security."
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This is very disturbing. The other main problem in the UK is that councils are thinking about Wifi cities - or as hackers would think - ID supermarkets. More needs to get done on this, however, big companies have too much red tape to get through to sort a quick solution. The other problem is the load and strain VPNs would add to their networks. I stumbled upon a nifty solution to this though, through stumble, which talks and trys to resolve the issues. You can find more on http://www.geid.co.uk/why-a-firewall-isn?t-enough/
Posted by: Gelnn 19 Nov 2009
Wi-fi Security
A lot of hacker tools are available on the net which do not require a particular level of skill to make them work and for an individual to use them to exploit wireless networks. Much of the work to prevent these incidents from occurring should be done by the company offering the Wi-Fi service as all data from end systems to the VPN gateway should be encrypted and authenticated, possibly using a strong authentication. Needless to say part of the job should also be done by the end user who need to put in place best practice through the use of a high quality anti-malware software which combines anti-virus and anti-spyware operation for detection and blocking. Rossano Ferraris, CA ISBU Research Team
Posted by: Rossano Ferraris 05 Nov 2009