Atlanta - November 15, 2007 - As the 2007 holiday shopping season officially gets underway, AirDefense, the innovator that launched the wireless LAN security market, today unveiled results from its comprehensive "2007 Retail Shopping Wireless Security Survey" of wireless data security and physical security practices in place at more than 3,000 stores nationwide and also in parts of Europe. Cities monitored were Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, London and Paris. Research was conducted in some of the busiest shopping areas in the country, including: Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue in New York City, Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Union Square and Market Street in San Francisco.
AirDefense discovered more than 2,500 wireless devices such as laptops, hand-helds, and barcode scanners in use by retailers. Surprisingly, 85 percent of the devices could have been compromised or risk stolen data due to data leakage, mis-configured access points, poor naming choices for access points, outdated access point firmware and a "cookie-cutter" technology approach by large retailers. This type of approach occurs when the same technology is used in all retail locations so vulnerabilities will repeat themselves across the entire store's chain.