According to IT Backbones Security News, anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab announced today that more than half of the 300 or so local Wi-Fi networks set up by companies last week at CeBIT 2006 were open to attack by hackers - 55 percent of Wi-Fi networks at the event did not use data encryption.

David Emm, Senior Technology Consultant at Kaspersky Lab, says, "Hackers are attracted to such exhibitions by the opportunity to break into the networks of companies taking part. Almost all firms that exhibit at the show set up their own local networks. Unfortunately, they are typically set up quickly and feature low security settings. Wi-Fi access points provide entry to these local networks, which are in turn often connected to the company's main server. Even if we subtract public network access points - which we detected as being available at the exhibition - the number of unprotected access points is unacceptably high."

Kaspersky has posted the research online here.