Research carried out by Sophos, shows that 8% of the more than 100,000 access points Wi-Fi, registered in the center of London, do not use encryption technology, and 19% use encryption technology, WEP. According to the researchers, the fact that many Wi-Fi networks in London used fairly old technology encryption WEP, can be explained by the fact that quite a number of Internet users are using older Wi-Fi routers that do not support the more modern encryption technology.
Most experts say that the root of the problem lies in the fact that the majority of Internet users use their existing equipment on a “works fine”, often replacing it only when the existing equipment is beyond repair.
Back in 2001, researchers have proved unreliable WEP encryption. To date, there automated tools such as aircrack-ng, allowing crack WEP encryption in just a few seconds. Response to the emergence of this kind of tools was to create a more secure type of encryption WPA. However, experience shows that, despite its unreliability, WEP encryption is still used quite often.
In any case, when using unsecured Wi-Fi networks to ensure maximum security of data, most experts advise to use a VPN or SSL connections.
