Enlisting the help of an ‘ethical hacker’, Life Assistance company, CPP is working to raise awareness of the threat from ‘Wi-jacking’. Many of us use wifi networks to access the internet everyday, but are we doing all we can to make sure our personal information is safe when browsing or transacting online? CPP’s experiment covered six cities in the UK to gauge just how many insecure networks are out there.
Shown as a series of videos the Wi-jacking story begins with Jason Hart, senior vice president of CRYPTOCard, conducting an experiment that reveals the number of unprotected wifi networks open to fraud in central London. In research conducted by CPP to support the experiment in October, it was also revealed that nearly a quarter of private wireless networks have no password attached, making them immediately accessible to criminals.
To test the vulnerability of personal information further the second part of the story focuses on how identity fraud can occur should private details be compromised due to Wi-jacking. “Once a wifi network has been Wi-jacked, the risk of the identity theft increases”, explains CPP’s Identity Fraud expert, Michael Lynch.
In the third and final video, ‘Have you been wi-jacked? ’, Jason Hart simulates a malicious attack via a wifi network to show just how easily identity fraud can be committed with just a few pieces of personal information. The ethical hacker is given permission to gain access to a personal email account and describes just how quickly fraudulent activity could take place.
This series demonstrates just how risky accessing public and unprotected home wifi networks could be. Wi-jacking is just one in a very long list of how your identity could be stolen and result in identity fraud. If we’re all aware of the risks posed by this and other forms of ID fraud, we can begin to stamp out criminal activity.
For more information about Wi-jacking, take a look at CPP’s blog: http://blog.cpp.co.uk/.
[via Techie-buzz]
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