Canary Wharf demonstrated excellent figures with just 35% of networks running without traffic encryption in this enclave of numerous skyscrapers, including Great Britain's tallest building, the 238-meter Canada House. This district is also home to a number of international banks (HSBC and Citibank to name a few), insurance companies, news agencies, etc. These are the very organizations that could be targeted by hackers and fall victim to the theft of commercial information.

Only a year ago 40% of all networks in this district were unencrypted. On the one hand, this clearly shows an increase in the number of secure networks. Canary Wharf has even managed to outdo La Defense, which registered at 37% in November last year. On the other hand, the improvement was just 5%. Just as before, over one-third of all hotspots could become the targets of hacker attacks. Furthermore, this increase took place while the total number of hotspots more than doubled. In the end, the new networks aren’t that much different from the older ones, and clearly not all potential threats - which have been recognized for years now - are taken into consideration when these networks are set up.

Even worse is that once again, London's overall traffic encryption proved to be better than that of the business district. This was also noted in Paris (29% for the city as a whole, 37% for La Defense). Last year, Canary Wharf had better numbers than London as a whole, but has slipped this year with 31% of networks being encrypted as opposed to 35% of networks in the rest of the city.



Consequently, the figure for London overall has improved by almost 20%. The British capital only needs to work a little more on its networks in order to surpass Paris, but the numbers are now so close that we can say these two cities are on an equal footing. London’s business district, however, needs to make some improvements in order to achieve the level of wireless security enjoyed at La Defense.

Types of networks

Wireless networks may be created around ESS/AP hotspots, or as Peer/AdHoc (computer-to-computer) connection.


It is known that nearly 90% of all WiFi networks worldwide use ESS/AP hotspots.



In 2006 Canary Wharf’s figures were almost identical to figures worldwide. This year the number of peer-to-peer connections fell slightly and amounted to 7%. This may indicate that WiFi devices with this kind of connection are decreasing in popularity (printers, for example), although overall these figures are within the margins of error.



The figures did not change much for London as a whole (unlike Canary Wharf) and showed a slight increase in the number of peer-to-peer connections. At just 1%, this increase is very small, but considering the total rise in the number of wireless hotspots in London, we can see that this trend is clearly indicative. Perhaps in the future London will catch up with Paris’s 13%.