Café’s, shopping centres, hotels and airports.

All places you would expect to find often free public WiFi. Session hijacking, man in the middle, packet-sniffing and malware spreading. All forms of attacks you leave yourself vulnerable to when connected to public WiFi. This can result in the loss of personal and sensitive data including bank information and passwords.

A man in the middle attack is when a hacker will monitor traffic between the victim and a public WiFi connection. It allows for packet sniffing, where hackers wait for the victim to login then steal the information as it’s being transferred.

Similarly, hackers can take control of your device. This is called session hijacking and done by pulling the victim’s sessions ID using packet sniffing techniques. Once hackers have control of your device, they can now also implement malware onto your device potentially stealing more data or revisit at a later time.

“Well, sometimes I need to connect to WiFi in public spaces. What am I supposed to do?”

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Tips to tackle the dangers of public WiFi

• Try using mobile data and hotspot devices to it and avoid using public WiFi where possible.
• Be sure to create a strong password for connecting to the hotspot that is not easily guessable.
• If it is a necessity to connect to public WiFi, do not access any sensitive or personal data when using it. This includes bank accounts making purchases online and logging into online accounts. Hackers can steal this information. Especially if you reuse passwords across different accounts.
• Be aware of what WiFi you choose to connect to. Check it is a trusted source and not just any random available WiFi connection that pops up.
• Consider using a VPN while using public WiFi. This will then encrypt data you send and receive on WiFi providing some protection from hackers stealing data if intercepted.
• To prevent interception when web surfing, be sure to only visits secure websites. This means ensuring that the URL begins with HTTPS.
• When using devices in public, always be aware of who is looking over your shoulder. If you regularly work in public, consider investing in a privacy screen for your laptop. Also, be sure to never leave your devices unattended!
• If all fails, be sure to have two-factor authentication turned on wherever possible. This can prevent hackers from gaining access to any online account you may have as it’ll have to be verified from a second device.

This is another important reason why it is important to have different passwords across different accounts!