In a presentation to the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, held at the University of Cambridge this week, a presented found nearly half of 2,500 wireless access points were not running any form of encryption. Well-known security commentator Bruce Schneier went as far to say that he didn't care if people used his Wi-Fi connection without permission, as the computers connected to it were secure.

This sort of result is rather old news, but Richard Clayton, a researcher at the University, rightly questioned whether the results are as straightforward as they seem. When people say "unsecured" with regard to wireless networks they typically mean that the access points are not using WEP or WPA encryption. However without actually examining the data, which would be an offense in many countries, it's impossible to tell if the users are running a VPN over the Wi-Fi network, negating the need for Wi-Fi's "built in" security. Simple wireless network scans will often ignore the content and give misleading results.

That said, it is not uncommon to fire up a PDA or laptop and find yourself automatically connected to someone else's network, with no way of knowing if they are happy about the situation. So there are certainly still a lot of genuinely insecure Wi-Fi connections around, the question is are they intentionally open or not?

Leaving any network open for arbitrary use is asking for trouble though, as it could be used by malicious users to mount attacks which will be traced back to the network itself, not the user. This can lead to a lot of unfortunate attention from the law enforcement community and potential liability for malicious action.

Altravision's range of security products can provide flexible and highly secure management of Wi-Fi links using a variety of VPN options, fully integrated with user-based authentication, greatly enhancing the protection provided by WEP and WPA.

Related information:

News.com: Does Wi-Fi security matter?

Altravision: WiFi Hack Leaves Laptops Open

Altravision: Windows Wi-Fi Bug