The availability of wireless networks in central London has increased 160 per cent in the past year, over three times more than the growth experienced in New York.

The sixth annual Wireless Security Survey of London, commissioned by security vendor RSA, also finds that the security of access points has improved in the past 12 months.

The capital now has 7,130 access points, putting it ahead of New York for the first time, which has 6,371 points, a rise of 49 per cent from last year.

London also leads when looking just at business access points, having experienced a 180 per cent increase over the past year, compared with a 57 per cent rise in New York.

Tim Pickard, European vice president of international marketing at RSA, says business use is responsible for the increase.

‘London’s explosive growth in wireless access points shows that businesses want a technology that allows people to work more flexibly than in a wired environment,’ he said.

‘The high number of consultants working in London who need flexible access to networks could explain wireless growth in the capital.’

London businesses have improved wireless security measures with 19 per cent of corporate wireless access points left unsecured, a fall from last year’s figure of 26 per cent.

But this figure is still too high, says Pickard.

‘Nineteen per cent of access points in London are unsecured. This equates to about 1,400 access points that are open to freeloaders who may use wireless access to view pornography, use chat lines or for criminal intentions such as stealing corporate data,’ he said.

Although many businesses continue to rely on the wired equivalent privacy (Wep) protocol to secure networks, adoption of more advanced encryption is improving in London, with 48 per cent of secured business access points using 802.11i or WiFi protected access (WPA).

Mark Blowers, senior research analyst at Butler Group, said: ‘Businesses want to be flexible in the way they work and cut cabling costs ­ most laptops now come with wireless technology so it is more prevalent. But they must take a holistic approach
to security and not rely on default settings.’