The 15.5 Billion Dollar Wireless Network is only 45% secure says Brook Zimmatore, CEO at Massive

LONDON, May 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Wireless network security is still in its infancy. There needs to be an international standard on all technological products. Manufacturers and tech companies have general guidelines and regulations, but upping wireless security is vital to the protection of businesses, and economy.

Wireless security across Britain is flaky despite the security concerns, according to James Lyne who has been riding his bike across the streets of London identifying insecure wireless networks and user behaviours that can be easily targeted by hackers.

The Global Head of Security Research at Sophos went 'warbiking' and the exercise found a number business users utilising poorly implemented, and in some cases, defunct wireless network security protocols.

London was the new stop in the 'World of Warbiking' tour – a research project carried out in major cities. The latest two day war biking experiment revealed that amongst 81,743 surveyed networks, 29.5% were relying on the known-broken WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) algorithm, 52% were on WPA (WiFi Protected Access) – a no longer recommended algorithm, and 29.5% had no security encryption at all.

The open wireless network scrutinised through this experiment also informed what websites people and executives are connecting to when out and about. Social media sites topped the list of most accessed pages, along with news websites and webmail. The worrying part was to see websites and services that are more attractive to cybercriminals, such as online banking sites.

The main risks for companies

In Europe, great strides have been made in corporate network security. WiFi networks are usually the first to be secured in a company by common practice. Currently, the state of security looks gloomy.

"An executive on an unencrypted network in an unsecured wireless area such as in the experiment can bring the whole wall down as their computer or device is remotely breached and infected with a silent malware," according to Brook Zimmatore, CEO at Massive.

WiPhishing is also becoming attractive because of unencrypted wireless networks. They serve as rouge access points for replicating secured networks. The twin preys on users signing in wrong access points mistakenly.

Businesses need to comply with latest encryption protocols such as WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption for protection against hackers. Additionally, they could also gather intelligence about the websites being accessed through these networks for an added layer of security.

"The 15.5 billion dollar wireless network is only 45% secure. Using sophisticated techniques, hackers may still be able to gain access despite latest encryption protocols. Massive's Strixus® threat intelligence platform can keep businesses feeling secure with targeted data intelligence", says Zimmatore.

Media Contact: Daniele Virgillito, Massive, 020 7590 3170, [email protected]

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SOURCE Massive