Public Wi-Fi use raises hacking risk

Public Wi-Fi use raises hacking risk

www.usatoday.com

The basic problem: T-Mobile and AT&T (T)— the largest providers of Wi-Fi hot spots in coffee shops, bookstores and airports — don't require encryption of data traveling wirelessly between laptops and the Internet. Neither do hotels and municipalities with free Wi-Fi hookups in public areas.

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Why isn't it encrypted in the first place? So we can be spied on easily? Big brother's everywhere these days. Anything convenient is also used against us.

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Even the strongest WEP encryption in use can be cracked in a matter of hours provided enough traffic can be collected. It is a false sense of security, so for public access hot-spots it's not worth the effort of making users use it.

NEVER do ANYTHING private or financial over a WiFi connection.

a small difference - with an unencrypted signal , you are not doing anything illegal (at least in the uk) using it - the moment traffic becomes encrypted - even with 64bit WEP , using tools to break that encryption you have commited a terrorist , erm , i mean criminal act and can be prosecuted for hacking.

but i do concur - digital Id`s for secure email and vpn for the best security.