Data-Leakage in Airport Wireless Networks

14 airports all over the world have been visited by experts and researchers from AirTight Networks, in an attempt to determine the awareness level of business travelers. The conclusions they reached are unnerving at best, downright unsettling: "We found that only three percent of all mobile users were using virtual private networks (VPNs), so most of their data was free and clear to anyone who could sniff the airwaves," Mike Baglietto, director of product marketing for AirTight Networks, told News Factor.

The test included attempting to gather personal data from the people going online in airports, and the team said that it only took minimal effort. Cookies were gathered like they were actually food, everybody was sharing them without hesitation. "There's a huge data-leakage exposure. […] We're able to track people's cookies in the air, and once you start getting a user's cookies, you could impersonate that user to steal their banking credentials, for example," Baglietto said.

Furthermore, apart from users actually not giving a damn about their security, the wireless networks were themselves insecure in most cases. 57 percent of the 478 access points were completely unprotected, whereas another 28 percent were poorly guarded by wired equivalent privacy (WEP), a protocol very easily broken. 77 percent weren't even hot spots, but mostly insecure networks run by shops, restaurants and even the airport back offices, according to the cited source.

Only one infected laptop in an airport can broadcast itself as a mobile hot spot, and any other computer connecting to it will automatically be infected. "The biggest risk that creates is that all your shared folders are exposed to everyone else on that network, so you could be sitting in the airport completely unaware that your laptop is connected to the guy sitting next to you," Mike Baglieto warned.