By silicon.com, 19 October 2009 12:40
NEWS
ISP TalkTalk has criticised proposals by the government to cut illegal file-sharers' internet access, on the grounds of wi-fi vulnerability to hacking.
In a blog post last week, Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk's executive director for strategy and regulation, said a test carried out by the ISP found a high percentage of domestic wi-fi connections are at risk from hacking.
As a result, Heaney said, millions of people could potentially have their connections hijacked by hackers for the purposes of illegal file-sharing and could therefore risk having their internet access cut off unfairly.
(Photo credit: mutednarayan via Flickr.com under the following Creative Commons licence)
For more, see ISP: Wi-Fi test shows flaw in file-sharing crackdown on ZDNet UK.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ollie Clark
How's that for reaping what you sow? ISPs have been selling insecure routers for years and now they're complaining about them causing problems.
2. Guy Reynolds
Looking on my laptop whilst at home, I can see eight wireless networks other than my own. One is totally open, so open that I can access the admin windows on the router, one is deliberatly open but secured as it is a BT access point, one has WPA encryption and the remainder have WEP. Much to my daughter's annoyance our network has WPA encryption. Why is she so annoyed? Her wireless gaming equipment only has WEP encryption and will not operate with WPA so she can't play online with her friends. I wonder how many households have desecured their networks in order to use games machines and do not realised what they have done.
3. drew stephenson
'Wi-fi hack makes plan to ban file-sharers unfair'
Actually that's not true, what makes the planned action unfair is that it works on a presumption of guilt.
That there are numerous other flaws with the plan is just secondary after this fundamental point.