A large proportion of Wi-Fi users are unaware of the security risks inherent in the use of Wi-Fi and the precautions they should be taking, according to a survey. The study, conducted in August on behalf of the Wi-Fi Alliance, involved 1,000 interviews with a mix of users in the United States.

While 86 percent of users have taken the basic step of enabling encryption on their wireless access point (AP), only 59 percent were found to have implemented passwords that met "basic criteria for strength and privacy." Moreover, only 18 percent of users make use of a VPN connection when at a public hotspot.

"We are very pleased to see the increase in security awareness and a rise in some of the basic protection measures such as locking down the home network," observed Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director of Wi-Fi Alliance in a statement. However, she noted that consumers can do more to protect themselves. According to recommendations by the Wi-Fi Alliance, this includes enabling WPA2 security, using of strong passwords with at least eight characters long and turning off automatic sharing.

Ultimately, good Wi-Fi security awareness and practices are important, as the ubiquity of wireless means that employees will increasingly access work systems from public hotspots or from their home Wi-Fi networks.

For more on this story: 
- check out this article at Network World 
- check out this article at Dark Reading

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