An experiment conducted in nine major cities around the world has revealed that the security of WiFi hotspots in Europe is stronger than in the US and Asia. The research was based on data collected from Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Barcelona, London, Taipei, Hong Kong and Seoul.
Antivirus company Avast, which also conducted the research, sent volunteers on foot to these cities, each with a laptop equipped with a WiFi adapter in detection mode. This way, they could get information about the data being sent between an access point and a download program.
From the data collected, one could conclude that Europeans are aware when it comes to protecting their data more securely and avoid connecting to open WiFi networks or leaving theirs open to the public.
Avast volunteers found that the percentage of access points without an authentication method for customers was 28.5% in Europe, 31.7% in the US, and 42.3% in Asian cities.
The stronger WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) protocol was observed in 40% of hotspots in Europe, 39.1% in the Americas and 17.6% in Asia.
On the other hand, regarding access points with HTTPS, the researchers found the percentage to be 1.3% in Europe, 1.5% in the US, and 4.6% in Asia.
According to Avast's study, it appears that Americans (28.1%) rely more on HTTPS for their Internet browsing, compared to Europeans (26.6%) and Asians (16.2%).
This experiment provides useful information about the overall security status of WiFi in different metropolitan areas around the world, and this should raise alarm bells about connecting to unprotected hotspots, given that a large percentage of users have been observed doing so in all cities.
