Keep Calm and Check Your Public Wi-Fi Connection
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Awareness, Guides
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When it comes to Public Wi-Fi, it is “better to be safe than sorry.” Read our guide and secure your Wi-Fi connection when you travel.
“Is public Wi-Fi safe to use?”
We need access to the internet wherever we go here in the digital age. Our reliance on the internet means we tend to look for convenient ways to connect our electronic devices to the internet when we aren’t home - usually relying on public Wi-Fi at coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, airports, etc. Most likely, it is free and faster than using the data from our phone plan. But, faster or not, the question remains, “Is that secure?” A publicly available network may not always have the latest firmware, patch updates on its hardware, or have proper encryption enabled; therefore, if you connect to the network you may be exposing yourself to potential risks.
“What are the potential risks?”
Hackers often exploit the convenience and availability of public Wi-Fi. Some common techniques hackers use to take advantage of unsuspecting victims include:
Evil Twin Attack: A hacker sets up a malicious hotspot using a trusted network name, tricking victims into connecting to it. They usually name the connection after a nearby place such as library, airport or coffee shop making it look like a legitimate public Wi-Fi connection. When you connect to it, you’ll be revealing all the information you’ve entered on your device to the hackers.
Man-in-the-Middle Attack: This occurs when hackers position themselves as a middle person between your device and the Wi-Fi access point to monitor your internet traffic without you noticing it. As a consequence, they can view every piece of information you’ve sent to the network. This can be your sensitive information such as your login credentials or credit card details.
Malware Distribution: An unsecured network can be easily exploited by hackers, allowing them to distribute malware to your devices. The attack often comes as a fake pop-up window for a software update pushed by hackers. When you click on it, the malicious software will be downloaded onto your device, resulting in hackers accessing your files, data, or even locking your device with ransomware.
“But I need Wi-Fi! What can I do to stay safe?”
Here is a list of things you can do to protect yourself from potential risks:
Turn off automatic Wi-Fi connections: The feature that allows auto Wi-Fi connections on your electronic device makes it convenient for users. However, it can put your electronic devices and the data you transmit at risk. You must always be vigilant about what network is connected to your electronic devices. Instead of letting our devices manage the Wi-Fi settings, we should manually manage and make our own decisions. Depending on your phone’s operating system, review the official support guides from Apple/Android to learn how to turn off the auto Wi-Fi connection.
Connect to a VPN: This is short for Virtual Private Network; without getting into the technical details, generally, a VPN allows all of your network/internet use to be encrypted. Encryption protects the traffic between our devices and data sources which contain our private information, identity, and sensitive data. Want to know more and learn how to set one up? Check out this ACT post for more details.
Limit your usage: Avoid accessing sensitive information containing personal and financial data. This means don’t log into your bank account on your favorite coffee shop’s Wi-Fi.
Secure your connection: Sometimes, when you connect to Wi-Fi, it redirects you to another website to establish the connection. Always make sure that the website is using the “HTTPS” protocol. “HTTPS” protocol is an extension of “HTTP,” with an extra security layer designed to encrypt the data between the sender and receiver using a TLS certificate, which uses public key cryptography technology (aka encryption). When hackers intercept the data between the sender and receiver, all they can see is Ciphertext - which is unreadable.
When in doubt: peace, and pout!: Lastly, if you doubt the connection, just leave the connection at all costs to prevent any potential loss.
Reach out to our team of experts to learn more about how we can help you or your team stay ahead of the latest security threats and to raise cybersecurity awareness. We’re here to help!
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