Heard of wardriving? Now there’s warbiking

You may have heard of “wardriving,” which involves driving around in a car searching for open and unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Well, our resident technology guru James Lyne has taken to “warbiking” around the UK on his mountain bike, sniffing out Wi-Fi hotspots to see if they’re safe from hackers.

On Thursday, August 15, James is taking his bicycle to the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he’s helping the Scottish Business Resilience Centre to educate business owners about keeping their networks secure.

“If you are a small business or a consumer and your network is wide open, anyone can connect,” James told the Daily Record and Sunday Mail last week.  “Once they have their foot in the digital door they can not only piggyback your network but also potentially launch attacks on data.”

This isn’t James’s first ride around the block. He “warbiked” in the streets of London last summer to find out how many people and businesses have left their Wi-Fi networks open to attack. And what he found was shocking.

Of the nearly 107,000 wireless networks James surveyed, he discovered that 27% have poor, or no, security.

Check out this video of James’s warbiking adventure. It’s pretty entertaining, and educational.

You can protect your Wi-Fi network with these handy tips (PDF). Or read this post to find out what you need to look for in a secure Wi-Fi.

We’d certainly recommend our Secure Wi-Fi solution to keep your business truly safe.