Legit user? Data spy?
Cover hacker?

About 25 percent of stores’ access points exchange data — including credit card and social security numbers — without encryption, writes Boston.com.

This was discovered after covert monitoring of over 3,000 retail stores by wireless security company AirDefense Inc. The company found that half of these stores use wireless data systems that are vulnerable to hacking, reports MediaBuyerPlanner.

According to the survey, 25 percent of stores use an outdated encryption method that is easily accessed by hackers with tools that are widely available."You can drive down a street with a laptop and easily find wireless access points, and it does not require a great degree of sophistication," Avivah Litan, security analyst with Gartner Inc., is quoted as saying.

Lars Laven, co-founder of wireless security firm Columbitech, calls the report the tip of the iceberg leading to a much larger security problem.