Quarter of World’s Wi-Fi Hot Spots ‘Just Waiting to Be Hacked,’ Says Kaspersky Lab

More than one in four of the more than 31 million Wi-Fi hot spots around the world is “just waiting to be hacked,” Kaspersky Lab said in a Thursday report. Kaspersky estimates 25 percent of the world’s Wi-Fi networks “have no encryption or password protection of any kind," meaning the information they transmit is “completely open and can be read by third parties.” Another 3 percent of hot spots use Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol to encrypt data, it said: “This unreliable protocol can be ‘cracked’ within minutes using tools that are freely available on the internet.” The rest of the world’s hot spots use “a more reliable form of encryption” based on the "family" of Wi-Fi Protected Access protocols, it said. “The effort required to hack these networks depends on the settings, including the strength of the password.” It’s “worth noting” that the top 20 countries with the highest percentage of non-encrypted Wi-Fi hot spots include many popular tourist destinations, among them in the U.S., Kaspersky said: “Travelers are among the most vulnerable because the nearest available Wi-Fi hotspot is often the only way for them to stay connected.”