Authorities in India are urging citizens to secure their WiFi networks after discovering that a militant group allegedly responsible for a series of bombings there recently may have sent their warning emails of the attacks via unsecured wireless LANs, according to published reports from Asia.

Police in India this week arrested members of the Indian Mujahideen group, which is suspected of being behind serial bombings in Delhi and Ahmedabad. The police said the suspects used WiFi scanners to detect open WiFi networks and then remotely sent their email messages from those networks, claiming responsibility in advance of bombings in Delhi and Ahmedabad.

Authorities confiscated five laptops, three thumb drives, wireless routers, and radio frequency detectors from the suspects. One of the suspects worked as a software engineer for a multinational firm, according the report.

An email sent to news outlets by the group in September and warning of blasts to occur in Delhi and other locations originated from an insecure wireless LAN in Mumbai, the authorities said. The WiFi account of a U.S. businessman was also hacked and used to claim responsibility for the series of explosions in Ahmedabad in July.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading