Millions hack into wireless broadband connections

According to a recent report millions of Brits have admitted to hacking into unsecured broadband networks, using someone else’s broadband connection without their permission.

Many industry officials have warned against the dangers of having a wireless broadband connection that is not secured, as this means that others can hack into the connection and use it. One of the most worrying things about this is that others can use the unsecured broadband connection to perform a variety of activities, including criminal activity such as fraud.

One recent report has shown that literally millions of Brits have admitted to using another person’s unsecured wireless connection to get online, showing just how simple it is for a wireless connection to be hacked if the user does not have the connection properly secured with a password. Whilst in many cases people may use the other person’s connection for harmless activity this is not always the case.

In the past twelve months around four million people have used another person’s broadband connection to get online, a process that is known as piggybacking. One official involved in the research said: “It’s bad enough your neighbours can use your internet connection freely, but this becomes far more threatening if someone uses your connection for criminal or improper activity.”

He added: “This could be accessing your internet connection to download obscene material, gathering personal information to defraud you or even stealing your identity.” He added that the issue of piggybacking had become particulalry concerning because of government legislation that could see illegal downloaders being punished, even though in some cases the ilegal downloading could have been carried out by someone that was using another’s connection.

Source – Webuser