Not All That is Free is Good.

Even though WiFi has made our lives a little easier, there are security risks to consider when handling our personal information that is available on our laptops and smartphones. One of the biggest threats with free and usually unsecure WiFi is the ability for hackers to position themselves between you and the connection point. Instead of connecting with the hotspot directly, you end up sending your information to the hacker. The hacker would have access to every piece of information you send out including emails, phone numbers, credit card information, business data, and so much more.

Man-in-the-Middle Attack

A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack involves three players: the victim, the entity in which the victim is trying to communicate, and the “man in the middle” who is intercepting the victim’s communications. The victim is unaware of the man in the middle. Essentially, this is a form of eavesdropping. Criminals can evens set up legitimate sounding WiFi connections to lure users to connect to them so that they can monitor user online activity and intercept login credentials, payment card information, and more.

How MITM Attacks Work

Cyber criminals can use MITM attacks to:

Capture your user ID and passwords.
Collect traffic which websites you mostly visit plan attack from these websites.
Gain access to your computer’s network and data.
Launch a spam or malware attack on your device
Hijack the account you are logged into, and use it for unscrupulous purpose.
Redirect you to a phishing webpage to tempt you to input personal information.

Two Types of Public WiFi

There are two types of wireless networks: unsecure and secure.

Unsecure – a network that can be accessed within a certain range without security features like passwords or logins to use
Secure – a network that requires users to agree to legal terms, register an account, enter a password before connecting to the network.

How to Spot Secure Vs. Unsecure WiFi Networks

4 levels of WiFi security protocols

Wireless networks have three security protocols intended to protect the information you send and receive. Many of these protocols use encryption methods, which scrambles the network connecting to make it difficult for others to “listen in” and look at which web pages you are viewing.

Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) – Released in 1997, it is the oldest and weakest secure of all protocols. It even takes 30 minutes to decrypt due to several vulnerabilities and does not offer end-to-end security.
Wireless Protected Access (WPA) – Introduced to overcome weakness of WEP, but both can be easily hacked. This protocol was meant to be an intermediate remedy until WPA2 was finalized.
Wireless Protected Access 2 (WPA2) – This standard governs what occurs when you connect to a network using a password. It defines the protocol a router and the WiFi client devices use to perform a “handshake,” allowing them to securely connect and communicate. Requires AES encryption making it harder to crack.
Wireless Protected Access 3 (WPA3) –Recently announced to roll out in 2019 by the WiFi Alliance to replace WPA2, making it harder for people to hack your network by using individualized data encryption and protect against brute-force attacks.

Wireless Security Cheat Sheet

Do’s and Don’ts of Using WiFi Networks

Taking precautions when using public WiFi networks will save future heartache and being a victim to crime such as identity theft, malware, ransomware, and more. Here are some do’s and don’t of connecting to and using wireless networks.

Dangers of Ignorance – Using Unsecure WiFi