Kaspersky Finds WPS Exposure and Open Wi-Fi Risks in Mexican World Cup Host Cities

Kaspersky's GReAT team reported widespread wireless security weaknesses across public Wi-Fi environments in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey after a passive wardriving assessment conducted ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The researchers recorded 84,588 signals and 69,473 unique SSIDs, finding strong standardization in ISP deployments, heavy dependence on the 2.4 GHz band, and frequent use of default or revealing SSID naming conventions, including names derived from BSSID metadata that can expose infrastructure details.

While WPA2/WPA3 was the dominant protection scheme overall, the study found that open networks remained common and that nearly half of detected access points advertised WPS, including roughly half of otherwise secured WPA2/WPA3 networks. Kaspersky warned that encryption alone does not reflect real wireless security posture because default configurations, predictable naming, and WPS exposure can aid reconnaissance and enable evil twin hotspots, credential harvesting, and man-in-the-middle attacks in dense tourist areas expected to attract World Cup visitors.