Will you be FireSheep hacked on Sydney Ferries free Wi-Fi?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 31 January 2011 15:04

Your IT - Mobility

Set to be a potential godsend to FireSheep abusers, 200,000 ferry passengers on Sydney's 13 'First Fleet' ferries are now able to enjoy free Wi-Fi from today, with sensible limits to prevent leeching while still giving useful and useable Wi-Fi access.

Sydney Ferries has unleashed free Wi-Fi across its 'First Fleet' of ferries, something that could be a boon to VPN providers who can secure even free Wi-Fi connections against hack attacks by the dreaded FireSheep password-revealing software.

Paid VPN software that protects users such as Witopia.net and StrongVPN.com is advisable when using any free Wi-Fi service to protect against attack via rogue hotspots and FireSheep snoopers, although as you'd expect, Sydney Ferries makes no such public service warning, nor guarantees any protection against such hack attacks. 

Now, before you think that Sydney's entire ferry fleet has now been Wi-Fi enabled, that's not yet the case. Previously, the Manly Ferry service enjoyed a free Wi-Fi trial last year, and with over 140,000 people having logged on, the trial was obviously considered a stellar success, with this new announcement conveniently coming just-in-time for the upcoming NSW State Election.

The service has now been extended to 13 Sydney Ferries vessels, including all Manly Ferries, the Charlotte, the Golden Grove, the Scarborough, the Friendship and the Borrowdale. Sydney Ferries says that this means nine extra vessels and 'almost' 1500 extra services per week will now be Wi-Fi enabled.

This include services from the following wharves: Balmain, Birchgrove, Balmain West, Woolwich, Greenwich, Milson's Point, Kirribilli, Cremorne Point, Neutral Bay and Pyrmont Bay.

The service is being provided in conjunction with TomiZone, as reported by iTWire's telecommunications editor, Stuart Corner, earlier today, with paid Wi-Fi options available after the free Wi-Fi time expires.

However Sydney Ferries says that there's still 30% of ferry users who won't yet have access to the free Wi-Fi service - presumably this is still on the way, as is free Wi-Fi across Sydney's entire public transport fleet of trains and buses, although there is a Wi-Fi trial on the Sydney MetroBus M10.

As you'd imagine, Sydney Ferries says that its Wi-Fi compatible device-wielding passengers will be able to 'check their emails, read the news and catch up with friends online while travelling across Sydney Harbour on a ferry.'

The adventures of free Wi-Fi continue on page two, including details of how much free access is available, please read on!