Wireless at hot spots, Airports

Charles De Gaulle Airport 16:43

Going back after 2 1/2 day in the outskirts of Paris.
I visited the La Defense area, which is one of the big business district here.
The architecure is somewhat 60s, with a futurstic touch. The Parisiens here are much more friendly than I remember from my last visit to Paris, in 1996. Maybe it has to do with me getting older, and therefore more respect.

Waiting at the gate for the boarding to take place, I come to think about an old french cartoon I used to read in the 70s. I can really recall the name, but It was about a young office guy, who had a strange pet that got him into troubles, and as far as I can remember, the cartoon took place around the La Defense area.

Now to something completely different.

I have been in the bad habit of looking for 802.x networks for some years now, and I am still suprised by how many that is still not protected. At airports for example. If you are using the airports hot spot to let's say, check your email, bookings, bank account or whatever, all your internet traffic will go in cleartext, as the hot spots, rarely offers any encryption. I know this is for the convenience for the customers, so that they don't have to go thru the trouble setting up WEP or WPA keys, but I wonder if they are aware of the possibilty that someone can catch all their usernames and password that goes in clear text?