The lure of free WiFi
Have you been to an airport or railway station that offers free Wifi?
Not just that a number of establishments from bus stops to cafes offer free WiFi.
The data pack on your mobile costs money and if you are a heavy user of the internet then you tend to look for options to avoid draining your data pack or cut down the mobile internet bill.
Be it out of necessity or to cut down on the expenses chances are that you may be tempted to use the free WiFi internet opportunity.
Besides this sometimes we use it because we do not have any other means of connecting to the internet. This inturn may be a boon however it has some unwanted side effects that we should know in order to protect ourselves.
Most people are not aware of the risks of using public wifi. Assume that you are on a public Wifi and a hacker too is on the same network. By virtue of being on the same networks a hacker can tune listening devices to capture bits and pieces of the data emerging from your device. Using this he can get access to information such as
- Your Email & Password
- Your Address
- Your Social security Number
- Your bank details and in some cases even
- The username and password of your online bank account
They can also access your device and install malicious apps or inject codes that can make your device vulnerable and let them use your device remotely in order to attack other devices or networks by turning them into attack vectors.
All this can happen to you just by way of using a Vulnerable free Wi-Fi network.
How to be safe on a public Wi-Fi
Avoid having to login and use a public Wi-Fi as far as possible as you can never be 100% sure as to what bad actors are waiting for you on the network
Verify that the public Wi-Fi is genuine
Before connecting, verify with the staff the genuineness of the public Wi-Fi being offered by the facility. A point of caution here is that a bad actor or scammer can easily create a Wi-Fi hotspot with a name very similar to the free Wi-Fi hotspot being offered by the facility.
This dubious free hotspot may be a bait for you to connect and make your device available to the scammer.
Do not login via your social media or any other account
Usually the facility staff may offer you a username and password to login. However if the login screen asks you to validate via your social media or email account then this is a red flag.
Avoid logging into such a network as the validation you give may be a trap by scammers and hackers to exploit your sensitive information, data and credentials.
No financial transactions on public Wi-Fi
As far as possible do not log into your bank or do financial transactions via a public Wi-Fi connection.
This is a vulnerability that should be avoided.
Use a reputed VPN on public networks
It is always a good idea to use a trusted VPN which can encrypt your data making it hard for anyone to track your online activity.
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