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Want to steal an MP's secrets? Try Café Nero, free WiFi, near Westminster

Café Nero is famous in London for providing genuinely free WiFi, in the hope of attracting coffee drinkers from Starbucks - and it succeeds, apparently, in attracting some high class customers. "I used to spend afternoons sitting on the steps outside Portcullis House so that I could get a signal from what I think is Café Nero next door," said MP Adam Afriyie this week.

Yes it's true: the House of Commons and the House of Lords have no wireless Internet. It's "not safe" say the authorities. Mind you, they also said mobile phones aren't safe because of "Bluesnarfing" - and even when this was shown to be hooey, they maintained their blanket ban.

It's a classic case of Network Nazi behaviour by the security staff at the House of Commons, which has undermined its own objectives by banning WiFi and Bluetooth.

The result is that new MPs are given a notebook, and a password to the House network - but until they get an office, they can't get to the Internet. Amazingly they have been using unofficial routes, something no security expert could possibly have predicted.

The network nazi code says that "If I don't understand it, prohibit it." It sounds like a safe strategy, except for the fact that time after time, computer network users have proved that if they don't get given what they need, they find their own way.

The result is that MP traffic, instead of going through a "presumably safe" Parliamentary firewall and DMZ, is sharing air space with passers-by from who knows where, through a network of unquantifiable security, simply because they have to have Internet access to do their work.

An enquiry has recommended installing a safe WiFi network in Westminster's famous palace.

The report by the UK House of Commons Administration Committee, examines how the House of Commons services responded to the influx of 123 new Parliament members following last year's election, said Silicon reporterSteve Ranger earlier this week.

Laptops supplied to Parliament members have both wireless and Bluetooth disabled, and the report warned that this "significantly limited" the extent to which a member without an office could work within the parliamentary estate, said Ranger's report.

Inevitably, since a notebook costs very little and MPs are not very poor, the only effect has been to make them bring their own notebooks to Westminster, and use alternative access systems.

And as our reports on snarfing pointed out, if you really want to hack into an MP's phone to steal the phone book address list, there's a fairly easy technique available.

Steal the phone. It'll probably get left in a taxi soon enough, anyway.

Tags: Bluesnarfing, WiFi, hotspots