The Dangers of Free WIFI

     Whenever we are at public spaces, we sometimes encounter these establishments that offer free WIFI connection to its customers. Connecting to these public WIFI can make users be at risk to hackers. It is indeed convenient to access these WIFI to freely browse the net but this freedom comes with a price. It is important to be aware and understand the risks of connecting to public WIFI. it should help us learn how to protect ourselves and our precious personal data.

 

    Most public WIFI in a establishment such as a coffee shop are secured with a password and it only requires an interaction to a staff by asking the WIFI password to access them. Some are free and often makes the user browse through a catalog of advertisement for a minute to access them. We all have important and sensitive information on our devices and unfortunately the majority of public WIFI users do not realize the possible threats they have.

    The majority of threats are concerned with connecting to a public WIFI that has been tampered by a hacker. Connecting to a WIFI compromised by a hacker can lead to information theft, hackers can have access to the login credentials of social media accounts or event bank accounts. Hackers can also distribute malware and other viruses that can infect our devices.

    Here are some of the solution that users can take to protect themselves when connecting to a public WIFI:

• Use a VPN service to encrypt any data that you send or receive over a WIFI network. 
• Keep your activity minimum, do not login to any social media accounts or bank accounts and disconnect from the public WIFI immediately once you are done.
• Use a cellular data instead of a public WIFI if you need to connect to the internet.
• Keep you WIFI off when not accessing the internet, to avoid automatically connecting to a random WIFI connection.

    It is dangerous to connect to a public WIFI because it exposes us to a lot of threats put up by hackers. Most of the solutions is to either browse the net moderately, use a service that can protect us or to completely avoid connecting to a public WIFI connection.