Half the wi-fi connections in city unsafe,says survey

The findings have come as a disappointment for the cyber police who feel that despite all their efforts,a majority of the netizens in the city have not learnt any lessons.

In 2008,the city police along with IT firms had conducted several awareness campaigns on Wi-Fi security in the wake of the arrest of Pune-based software engineer Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy,the leader of the media cell of the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen. Peerbhoy had sent terror mails to the media and the police using open Wi-Fi networks.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (cyber cell) Rajendra Dahale said that a team comprising inspector Sanjay Tungar of cyber crime cell and ethical hacker Rohit Srivastava of ClubHack travelled across the city in a police vehicle to check the Wi-Fi security.

“We conducted the survey in the same areas that we surveyed in 2008. Once again 50 per cent of the Wi-Fi connections were found open. The corporate firms have secured their Wi-Fi connections. But the individual Wi-Fi connections and those at places such as hotels and airports have still not been secured,” said Srivastava.

“In 2008,the percentage of connections secured by Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was 31. In 2009,it has dropped to 25 per cent. The Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) was 19 per cent in 2008. It has gone up to 25 per cent in 2009,” he said

Meanwhile,an IT firm Data 64 Techno Solutions Private Limited,in association with cyber crime cell of police,conducted an “e-awareness survey” in seven city colleges. The Data 64 team asked questions on cyber security to 1,073 youngsters from the colleges. Gokul Narayan,Director of Data 64 said that cyber security awareness among the youths is very low as it was revealed that 59 per cent of the youngsters never changed their email passwords.

“It is very important to change the password frequently for security reasons. We found 35 per cent of the youngsters change their passwords once a month,” Narayan said. He said 45 per cent of the youngsters used a free version of an anti-virus software that is not really effective. “Sixtry per cent were not aware that misuse of peer-to-peer applications is illegal and leads to an increase in software and music piracy,” he said.