You wouldn’t go into Walmart and start shouting all of your bank passwords to everybody would you? Well, unless you take preventative measures, whenever you connect to the internet via a public wi-fi hotspot you are basically doing just that. Read on to find out the 25 scariest things you didn’t know about using public wi-fi.
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Most of the internet is far from secure. As we've seen with recent NSA scandals, even the most encrypted messages can be read by the right people
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By using a free downloadable app on their mobile phone, a hacker on the same wi-fi network as you could login into your personal accounts
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This would include Facebook and your email
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Although SSL (https) offers encryption, it isn't guaranteed to be secure
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Anybody could intercept the communications between you and the server and perform a "man in the middle" attack by impersonating you
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This would allow them to empty your bank account even though you are connected via SSL (and it has the little lock in the corner)
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Everyone on the same public wi-fi network can see your passwords unless the connection is SSL (https)
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Even with an SSL connection, many times only the login page is secure and the rest of the site isn't. This means a hacker can steal your session cookies and drain your account anyway
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Setting up a wi-fi network and calling it "free public wi-fi" is trivial. Be careful what you are connecting to. Rogue access points are a real problem
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Depending on how security conscious you are, if you accidentally connect to a fraudulent network they hacker may be able to access files on your computer
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They can even listen in on your Skype calls
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1 terabyte of data stolen everyday, that's the same as 1 billion people have login credential stolen
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370 million accounts are leaked globally every year
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Most passwords can be easily hacked with a simple dictionary attack
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Email is sort of like a skeleton key to the rest of your accounts (this is usually where you reset your passwords)
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As we said before, reading your email over public wi-fi is trivial for a hacker
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And just because you're using SSL doesn't mean your email itself is encrypted. A man in the middle could still read it
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If you're using an email client like Outlook on public wi-fi it's even harder to enable ensure encryption. Look into it
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Never connect to unverified wi-fi networks in the airport and certainly don't do anything more than browse the news
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If you do, you'll be on an airplane for the next few hours, and the hacker knows that
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If at all possible use password protected wi-fi like WPA2
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Make sure your antivirus software is up to date
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Check your firewall. On public wi-fi it may come in handy
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Some free software like TOR can help anonymize your browsing but it comes with it's own set of pitfalls
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The best solution to browsing the internet on public wi-fi is using a trusted VPN. This will create a secure tunnel for your data.
