Poor store wifi security as heard on NPR's Market Place

http://www.airdefense.net/newsandpress/11_15_07.php

Here are the first two paragraphs::

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poor naming choices for access points, outdated access point firmware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.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> http://www.airdefense.net/newsandpress/11_15_07.php
>
> Here are the first two paragraphs::
>
> 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.
>
Typically the result of cheepo organizations "saving money". The recent
most famous one is tjmax (a well known "cheepo" company) who deployed
insecure access points in their stores that connected directly to their
corporate network allowing complete access to customer data for years.