The Real Risk Of Using Public Wi-Fi
How hackers can easily capture your data and steal your credentials
In today’s digital age, the internet has become an integral part of our lives. We rely heavily on public Wi-Fi for remote work, studying in a cafe, or simply browsing outside our homes. However, this convenience comes with a significant risk that we often overlook.
In this article, I will explore the alarming risks of using public Wi-Fi. Understanding these risks and equipping yourself with the necessary knowledge to safeguard your personal data from potential hackers is crucial.
The dangers of using public Wi-Fi
It may sound alarming, but online security is a pervasive issue. Public Wi-Fi, despite its security authentication, remains vulnerable to hackers. This means that anyone, including hackers, can join the network.
To understand how hackers work and use public Wi-Fi to access your data, let’s look at some attacks they use.
Types of attacks used by hackers over public Wi-Fi
Man in the Middle (MitM)
A man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack is one of the most used threats. In this scenario, hackers impersonate public Wi-Fi, causing everyone connected to the network to be disconnected. As a user, you unknowingly connect to the hacker's fake public Wi-Fi. From this point, the hacker intercepts everything you do on the internet, posing a severe threat to your online security.
Wi-Fi Phishing
Like the MitM attack, hackers pretend to be the actual network, but instead of capturing and reading all your traffic on the network, they make a fake login page. When you connect to the network, a login page will pop up, where you need to log in with your social media account or email to access the internet through public Wi-Fi. This way, they have your login credentials, and if you use the same password for all your other accounts, you are in big trouble!
How to protect yourself from these attacks
To protect yourself from these attacks, I can only give you one piece of accurate advice: work on your mobile hotspot and use a VPN. Also, NEVER, and I mean NEVER, use public Wi-Fi where you need to enter your personal credentials.
Now that you know these risks, it’s important to share this information with others and take immediate steps to protect your data.
