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Although it is illegal in some parts of the world, 12% of U.S. and U.K. respondents to an Accenture survey have logged on to someone else's unsecured Wi-Fi connection.
Data that is sent via unsecured wireless routers is unencrypted and could theoretically be read by anyone who had the right network sniffing tools, but many people have tried logging on to unsecure Wi-Fi.
Logging on to open Wi-Fi signals is most popular with 18- to 34-year-olds, Accenture said. Nearly a third of them said they had done this at some point.
The practice is apparently more common in the U.S., where one in seven have piggybacked on free Wi-Fi networks, than in the U.K., where Accenture found that it was attempted by one in 11.
In some parts of the world, Wi-Fi piggybacking is considered to be a form of criminal hacking. In August, police arrested a 39-year-old man for using his laptop to connect to an unsecured Wi-Fi connection as he sat on a garden wall in the London suburb of Chiswick. And in a case that was widely publicized in the U.S., Sam Peterson of Sparta, Michigan, was charged after using a cafe's wireless connection to check his e-mail.
The Accenture study found that computer users are still engaging in some unsafe computing practices. Nearly half of all respondents said that they used the same password for all of their online accounts, and only a quarter of them have ever encrypted files on their computers.
Most computer users are sensitive to reports of identity theft, the study found, with about 25% of respondents saying that they would stop shopping at a retailer that had suffered a security breach. One-third said that they would continue to shop at the store, but would pay in cash rather than using credit or debit cards.
One other finding: People in the U.S. are more likely to keep their security software up-to-date than their U.K. counterparts. One in seven U.K. households never update security software. In the U.S., that ratio is 1-in-20.
Accenture's survey was based on telephone interviews with 800 U.S. and U.K. residents.
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Comments (16)
I did it Saturday morningBy Anonymous on April 17, 2008, 11:13 amWhile sitting in the parking lot, waiting for the barbershop to open, I picked up an unsecured wireless connection and browsed the news sites for 20 minutes. I...
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SaferBy Anonymous on April 17, 2008, 11:27 amMuch safer to crack a WEP AP than to take your chances with an unencrypted network.
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umm.... why is this illegalBy Anonymous on April 17, 2008, 11:53 ammaybe it should be illegal to be the owner of a wireless router that is unsecured. just like downloading music and tv, this is a victemless crime. Hey coppers time...
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SSL provides the safest level of security.By Anonymous on April 17, 2008, 11:59 amLOL encrypting access to the internet provides very limited security benefits of one's internet traffic. SSL provides the safest (and really only) level of security...
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The Usual ProblemBy Anonymous on April 17, 2008, 12:01 pmCombine password reuse with unsecured wireless connection and you get... disaster. http://tinyurl.com/6fkm8p That's a link for those who still ask themselves...
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Some of us want to promote free Wi-Fi?!By Anonymous on April 18, 2008, 1:36 am There are literally thousands of people around that are promoting "sharing" their Wi-Fi and encouraging people to "borrow" it. I've seen people (enthusiasts at...
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