Whether you’re a seasoned digital nomad or just enjoying your holiday, public Wi-Fi is an essential amenity often taken for granted. While being able to draft documents while waiting for a plane or having Zoom calls with people back home from a coffee shop in Belize is awesome and free, there are hidden dangers you should be aware of.
You’ve likely heard that public Wi-Fi can be dangerous – why is that, and how exactly? Most importantly, can you use public Wi-Fi without worrying about the risks? Here’s what you need to know.
What Makes Public Wi-Fi Unsafe?
Wi-Fi is designed for convenience, meaning it’s easy to connect to and use. It also doesn’t have the safeguards you’d expect from connection options like Ethernet and mobile networks. Since anyone can use public Wi-Fi easily, it becomes trivial to exploit it in different ways.
MITM attacks
For example, an attacker can connect to the same network and quietly place themselves between you and the websites you’re trying to reach. In a man-in-the-middle attack, they may be able to capture sensitive details like login credentials or peek at any information you send without protection.
This is where understanding what a VPN is comes in handy. A VPN encrypts your connection, which means your data is scrambled into unreadable text while it travels across the network. Without that encryption, anything you send in plain text can potentially be logged and abused by criminals who are already in the right place at the right time.
Malicious redirection
It’s common for people to use public Wi-Fi to check on their socials and access other frequently used websites. Cybercrooks can identify connection requests to common websites and redirect them to convincing copies, where you’re asked to enter your credentials. Falling for this means you’ve handed whatever you were asked to enter over to the crooks. This may include usernames and passwords, credit card info, personally identifiable information, and more.
Fake hotspots
Attackers can also bypass legitimate public Wi-Fi altogether. Instead, they make fake hotspots that look like the real thing. The network usually has a similar name to the one it’s mimicking, leading unsuspecting victims to connect to it instead. Even that may not be needed since many phones and laptops are set to connect automatically to the nearest available Wi-Fi.
Sometimes, connecting to a fake hotspot will directly lead you to a site designed to steal your credentials, as described above. However, it’s more common for these hotspots to act as regular Wi-Fi. The difference is that attackers have much more control over it.
They can analyze traffic and extract unsecured data or create fake pop-ups warning you of supposed updates to your OS or software. Clicking on those installs malware onto your device, which may do anything from long-term monitoring and data capture even when you disconnect from Wi-Fi to locking the system down until you pay a ransom.
Can You Use Public Wi-Fi Safely?
While the dangers of using public Wi-Fi are real, they also don’t lurk around every corner. Most Wi-Fi you’ll connect to will likely be legitimate and reasonably safe. That said, taking a few sensible precautions each time you connect will ensure that even suspicious Wi-Fi won’t pose a threat.
- Use a VPN – The most straightforward, “set-it-and-forget-it” precaution you can take is to activate a VPN before accessing public Wi-Fi. The best VPNs will encrypt your entire connection, protecting you in two ways. First, no one monitoring the network will know what sites you’re visiting and what you’re doing online. More importantly, even if they capture your network traffic, strong encryption means they can’t do anything with the data.
- Disable automatic connection and file sharing – Always connect to public Wi-Fi intentionally, and don’t allow shared folders to be exposed to it.
- Don’t log into accounts – Use public Wi-Fi for impersonal tasks like checking the weather or news. The less sensitive data you expose, the lower the chance of it being stolen.
- Check website security – Ensure that all websites you visit on public Wi-Fi start with https. Those that start with http don’t have the latest SSL certificates and won’t protect the data you enter.
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