Majority Of Mumbai Wireless Networks Not Secure Enough

Deloitte India conducted a wireless security survey in the month of September for Mumbai. The company has now released the results of this survey titled, ‘Wireless Security Survey’. The survey was aimed at addressing the security risks in a wireless environment with special focus on Mumbai.

According to the survey, a large number of wireless networks exist in Mumbai with either no or limited protection that can be easily compromised. Many of these networks do not have baseline security measures implemented such as changing default manufacturer device names, use of strong encryption mechanisms and passwords etc.

Of the 6,729 wireless networks examined as a part of the survey, 36 percent appeared to be unprotected i.e. without any encryption. Going further, 52 percent were using a low level of protection i.e. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption. The balance 12 percent were using the more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). In conclusion, 88 percent of the observed wireless networks are relatively easy to compromise.

“Wireless Networks are mushrooming all over the country, especially among home users and the SME segment. Ease of use and affordability of plug and play devices are the key reasons for the increasing popularity of Wi-Fi. However, limited awareness related to security concerns and information regarding securing the devices has exposed users to potential misuse of unsecured Wireless Networks. We believe that increasing awareness is the first step in securing these networks. We intend to take this initiative to other cities and eventually across India,” said Nitin Khanapurkar, senior director, Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte India.

The survey points out that the major risks that one might be exposed to include unauthorised access to objectionable or banned sites, access to post objectionable material on websites, send threatening e-mails, extract bank account details causing monetary losses etc. The survey also provides guidelines for protecting wireless networks from unauthorised elements.