Las Vegas NowI-Team: Consumers Wary of Wireless Network Security

I-Team: Consumers Wary of Wireless Network Security

You've found the deals, you've found you're store, but you might want to find some protection. Our world of bits and bytes means your shopping trip is not as safe as it used to be.

That world expands more and more every year. That's why we took GDigital's Shawn Snyder shopping, trolling for unsecured computer networks at a local mall.

"There's no system that can't be broken into with enough time and ingenuity," he said.

Snyder helps small businesses set up their networks. He showed how easy it is to break into networks from the parking lot. He found more than a dozen, their names hidden, but your data is open to everybody.

"Basically, any private information that you would be transmitting with that would potentially be able to be listened in upon," he said.

He says with no security, a hacker could break in with little effort and take any potential credit card numbers, emails or company secrets. That's the first layer of security, no security at all.

"There's basically nothing stopping it. It's like having a conversation, a loud conversation in the room and somebody walking past can hear it. You just need to know how to listen," he said.

The second layer is WEP, Wired Equivalent Privacy. It has flaws and can be broken. What you want is WPA, Wifi Protected Access. It can only be stopped by what's called a dictionary attack.

"It's what you would call a brute force attack. There's no elegance to it whatsoever."

Snyder says WPA is so secure, hackers have to guess the password by putting in every word from the dictionary -- more than 40 million words. It's the only way to keep your emails and credit card safe. Without that encryption this holiday season, buyer beware.

Most companies have their own policies on computer security, but in order to be truly safe, you may want to rely on the ultimate in security, a good old greenback.

In most shopping centers, it's up the individual company to keep their computers secure and keep your information off of Wifi.