A survey covering London, New York and Paris found that of the three, the UK capital had the most WiFi access points but was falling behind on wireless security.
Although it has the most access points (12,276 detected, some 3,000 more than New York), London's growth is slowing. The number of WiFi access points only grew 72 per cent in 2008 compared to 160 per cent in 2007. Paris had the highest increase in wireless access points, up by 543 per cent year-on-year.
The survey, by RSA, found that security in London was a major issue with one fifth of all business access points not protected by any form of wireless encryption. The majority of WiFi access points in London also still relied on the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption or no encryption with just under one-half using the stronger WPA (WiFi Protected Access) or WPA2 encryption. In contrast, 97 per cent of access points in New York and 94 per cent in Paris use encryption.
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