The Risks of Using Public Wi-Fi

Every time you go to a coffee shop, or a bar offering free WiFi, there are crowds of people using their phones and connecting their laptops. These people might be innocently working, or browsing, but they could be looking to connect and take over your systems.  Working from these places opens your computer and systems to hackers and vulnerabilities that you might not be aware of. 

Public Wi-Fi is a gift to many people who are in need to access their social networks when they are out and about, or when they have no WiFi at home. Be Warned, this freebie comes with a cost. Your cybersecurity! Public Wi-Fi hotspots offer a useful service to the public, but they also present a risk since hackers and identity thieves may easily spy on your activity and steal your passwords or other sensitive data. In other words, you should never trust a public Wi-Fi network. 

Remember that these passwords are common, making it easy for anybody in range to access the network and snoop on your online transactions. Your passwords, your data, your contact list and your social media accounts are all at risk if you are accessing a shared connection. 

 In this article, we’ll make it more detailed why you should think twice before connecting to a public Wi-Fi. 

What are the risks of using public Wi-Fi?

• Malicious hotspots or rogue access points are set up to deceive people into connecting to them and pose an even greater danger to their cybersecurity. Typically, this is accomplished by spoofing a legitimate local business, such as a restaurant, café, or hotel, to trick people into connecting to an unprotected network.

• Man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM) attacks are a frequent security risk in such networks. Literally, this implies that an attacker has positioned himself between you and the server you’re attempting to reach and that you have no idea about it. This allows the attacker to access all of your data, which they may then use to commit identity theft or even infect your device with malware or spyware by tampering with the data packages.

• Malware may potentially be spread over an unprotected Wi-Fi network by hackers. Scammers may inject an infected ad onto a safe website, lure you into filling out a phishing form or install a false program. If malware were to infiltrate your device, a hacker might use it in many ways he/she wants to. Worse still, you may be completely oblivious that malware has infiltrated your device.