USA Has More Open Wi-Fi Hotspots Than EU

Mark.JUK writes "Some 40% of wireless (Wi-Fi) Internet access hotspots in the USA are unlocked and do not require a security password, which compares with 25% in Europe; according to WeFi based statistics. Across the world, approximately 30% of recorded Wi-Fi access points are unlocked, while some 70% are locked. Nice to see everybody taking security so seriously, then. It should be perfectly possible to 'share' Wi-Fi while using WPA or WPA2 security measures at the same time."

USA! USA! USA!

[elrous0]

Yeah, number one, baby!

Re:Maths Lesson

[bakawolf]

WEP?

Are there really more open hotspots?

[olsmeister]

Or does the USA just have a higher percentage?

Re:How secure is secured?

[snspdaarf]

She could like sports, 'ey? 'ey? Know what I mean? Wink-wink, nudge-nudge!

Re:How secure is secured?

[SharpFang]

Realistically, it depends on traffic. I assure you a WEP network with long key and running a low transmission (for example instant messenger + RSS + WWW surfing, vs video streaming, torrents or online games) can take good many hours to break. Speaking from experience, two lunches, four beers and about 8 episodes of Cowboy BeBop before that nice mexican restaurant became Internet-enabled for me.

Re:No wonder

[bsane]

ROFL

Re:This isn't a bad thing.

[omnichad]

It's real simple to get this included on consumer routers. Just make a command-line tool that will run easily on busybox, then open source it. Give it a real cryptic name. Linksys and the like will include it on their next router, come up with a cute name for it, and call it their own.

This is under reported

[kurt555gs]

With http://www.aircrack-ng.org/ [aircrack-ng.org] you can have many more available WiFi hotspots.

Re:This isn't a bad thing.

[poolguy]

Great!! When I travel, I want to be able to go into a coffee shop, get my espresso, and pay for my espresso without subsidizing your desire to sit down and use your laptop on the internet without having to hand out credit card information or any other sort of credentials. I make a point of only frequenting coffee shops for their coffee, which I pay for. The expectation of free internet access is about as arbitrary as expecting a free blowjob during my oilchange at Jiffylube.

Well yeah

[argStyopa]

...the MOST unlocked hotspots? SWEET.

The fact that most of them connected to the web at something around 48kbps, not so sweet.

We have the largest tin-can-and-string network IN THE WORLD, BITCHES.

Re:This isn't a bad thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you've been going to the wrong JiffyLube.