Broadband News

Wireless hotspots vulnerable to hacking

Tuesday, 03 November 2009

Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

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The UK’s top wireless hotspot operators are vulnerable to hacking attacks, a BBC study has found

BBC1’s Watchdog programme used equipment readily available on the internet to hack into computers connected to public wireless hotspots belonging to BT Broadband's (www.BT.com) Openzone network, The Cloud from O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) and T-Mobile Mobile Broadband (www.T-Mobile.co.uk).

Internet security firm Garlik added that there had been a 207% increase in “account takeover fraud”, where criminals access existing accounts rather than using stolen identities.

“Consumers can fall victim to identity theft and fraud as criminals hack into user accounts to obtain personal information, email addresses, passwords and even financial details that they can later abuse,” said the company.

Each of the providers recommended using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for added security, though T-Mobile was the only ISP to offer this as a download when users log on.

“While this is one of the best ways to protect yourself while using a public wireless hotspot, a VPN is not something that the average consumer can set up easily,” said Michael Phillips, Broadbandchoices.co.uk product director.

The research revealed similar results to a recent study by TalkTalk Broadband (www.Talktalk.co.uk), which found that as many as seven million homes were vulnerable to wifi hijacking.

“Wireless hotspots can be really useful,” Phillips added, “but to make sure that your information is safe while connected, you should avoid using websites that contain sensitive information such as online banking, email accounts and even social networking sites like Facebook.

“A great alternative to wireless hotspots is mobile broadband, which is encrypted by the mobile provider for greater security,” he concluded.

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