IT contractors working from home need to be aware of the dangers posed by unsecured Wi-Fi networks, it has been claimed.

It was recently announced by the Information Commissioner's Office that Google had escaped a hefty fine for inadvertently collecting payload data through its Street View cars.

The firm was found to have collected emails, password and whole URLs from unsecured Wi-Fi networks throughout the UK.

Dan Raywood, the online news editor of IT publication SC Magazine, believes that while incident was a major embarrassment, the real cause for concern is the data that could be obtained from unsecured Wi-Fi networks.

He also adds that firms need to do more to ensure that personal data is protected from this kind of information harvesting.

"There are regulatory guidelines to ensure that personal data is protected, and it is the responsibility of online services to ensure that data is secured and transferred using the strongest encryption," he said.