Connection error

Corporates, hotels turning off Wi-Fi facility, fearing misuse during CWG

Once bitten twice shy. With the threat of unsecured Wi-Fi networks being exploited by terrorist outfits looming large, several corporates and hotels in the national capital have turned off their connections, at least until the Commonwealth Games.



E-mails have been circulated to the staff stating that their Wi-Fi services will not be available from October 1 to 15. The employees have been asked to use broadband connections available at their work stations. The companies fear that despite being secure, the connection may be hacked and used for illegal purpose.

Suresh Saxena, who runs call centre from Lajpat Nagar said, "Wi-Fi services are vulnerable to such attacks. Even if we are password protected, hackers can get into the system. We don't want to take any risk or get into any trouble. So we have planned to temporarily suspend it and instead use broadband connections."u00a0

Infrastructure firm Pratibha Industries, located in Defence Colony, has also suspended the plan for installing a Wi-Fi connection. "We have recently shifted to a new location in the same area. However with CWG on our minds, we have deferred the plan to install a Wi-Fi in our office. We will get it only upon the completion of the Commonwealth Games. Security has been a big issue and we don't want any terrorists to exploit our network," said Akash Deep, assistant manger with the company.

While terror e-mails are nothing new, it had become a trend to send these mails after gaining unauthorized access to unsecured Wi-Fi networks. It also led to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issuing directives to ensure Wi-Fi access points are secured. TRAI also asked the government to direct ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to educate their customers on Wi-Fi security measures to adopt in order to prevent misuse. Even the security agencies asked the Indian government to make password protection mandatory for all customers using Wi-Fi technology.

Hotels located at Paharganj have also become very particular about providing passwords to the Wi-Fi network users. "Earlier we used to keep our Wi-Fi open to all the users. But recently we got it secured. However, we have been scrutinizing thoroughly whosoever has been requesting access," said the manager of Hotel Descent.
Cyber experts feel terminating Wi-Fi connections will help the security agencies to a great extent in keeping the Games terror-proof. "Prevention is always better than cure.

In the past, WI-Fi connections were misused to send terror mails. So, I think companies are doing well by temporarily terminating the connections. CWG is a big event and no risk should be taken during those thirteen days," said Vivek Vohra, an IT security expert.