According to a study conducted by security and control specialist Sophos, the amount of people in the United Kingdom sneakily taking advantage of someone else’s Wi-Fi Internet connection by ‘piggybacking’ has risen to a rather worrying 54 percent.
New Sophos security report reveals that instances of Wi-Fi piggybacking are on the rise in the UK. Credit: Wi-Fi.
Oxfordshire-based Sophos, which also has offices in Burlington, Massachusetts, has recently released its research showing that more than 50 percent of polled users have admitted to breaking the law by hitching a connection ride on the coat tails of another user’s account.
Sophos outlines that this trend of ‘piggybacking’ is likely a consequence of careless Internet users leaving themselves vulnerable after not applying proper security measures to their wireless connection. This, in turn, then leaves their Wi-Fi connection open for closely situated individuals (i.e. neighbours, passers-by) to use the Net via their computers without ever paying an ISP for the access.
"While stealing Wi-Fi Internet access may seem like a victimless crime, it deprives ISPs of revenue. Anyone hopping onto their next-door neighbours’ wireless broadband connection to illegally download movies and music from the net, are likely slowing down legitimate users’ Internet access and impacting on their download limit," commented Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a VNUNet report.
"Although most ISPs put a clause in their contracts to try to prevent users sharing access with neighbours, it is very hard to enforce," added Cluley.
The Sophos survey, which also revealed that seemingly protected businesses could be at risk from employees working remotely from home, was conducted across 560 respondents between October 31 and November 06.
Sophos outlines that it is extremely easy for hackers to eavesdrop on communications and even potentially steal passwords, usernames and other personal information if home and business users fail to employ strong encryption protection for their networks.
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