Cyber Security Solutions, Compliance, and Consulting Services - IT Security

We offer It security management, data, network, & Information security services for protecting information & mitigating security risks to your organization.

Why you should never, ever connect to public Wi-Fi

WPA2 is the encryption standard that secures all modem Wi-Fi, it launched the possibility that anyone near you can access to your personal information if using the same network. These days Wi-Fi standards have flawed and you should not trust them.

The largest threat with Wi-Fi is that a cybercriminal can place him in between you and the connection point. In this case, your data are not sent to the hotspot instead it is sent to the hacker. They can get access to the information you share that can be an email, a phone call, credit card information, business data and much more. Once the criminal gets this information they can get access to the entire system.

Connecting to public or free Wi-Fi is incredibly dangerous, people despite numerous warnings and educations still using public Wi-Fi. Remember checking personal emails, social media, logging into a bank account or anything you do on public Wi-Fi is not secure.
Given below are some suggestions to improve your safety and not using public Wi-Fi.

Do not touch any of your personally identifiable information (PII)

If you are using any public Wi-Fi it is important to not to touch any PII which includes your banking information, social security numbers, phone numbers, and home address. Some accounts require your phone numbers for signing up, which allows access to personal information. So avoid using public Wi-Fi.

Use virtual private networks (VPN) instead

VPN helps in creating a secure connection to the network. It is mostly used to access region-restricted websites and it shields your browsing activity from prying eyes on free Wi-Fi. Employees use a VPN network and if the employee uses a public Wi-Fi on the go it means the firm’s information is at risk.

Use SSL connections

You must use HTTPS for browsing data especially if you are using public Wi-Fi. To add more security, enable the HTTPS option on the website. Do not use banking site or other important sites which requires credentials and if it is urgent that make sure to use HTTPS.

Turn off sharing

Avoid using free Wi-Fi at the airport, coffee shop, restaurants or anywhere. If you are using it, then turn off the file-sharing option. File sharing is easy to turn off from the system preferences or control panel, depending on your OS.