Ep 12 Public Wi Fi

12 Public Wi-Fi use warnings and suggestions

Norton website - The Risks of public Wi-Fi

https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-risks-of-public-wi-fi.html

Hello. Welcome back to USB our Guest, Cyber Security Tips. Thank you for adding us to your Routine.

There is an article on the Norton Website about the dangers of, and suggestions when using public Wi-Fi. It's a 5 min read and the website will be in the show notes.

Most public places and businesses have a free Wi-Fi connection for their customers. Some business owners may not realize how little security they have on their network. If you don't pay close enough attention, you may inadvertantly connect to something malicious.

Encryption is as way of masking data being transmitted from your computer to the router. Most routers that broadcast wi-fi have encryption turned off by default. If you are on a network without the data being encrypted then your data is being broadcast without this layer of security

Malicious hotspots are fake access points setup to trick you into connecting to them. The local coffee shop may have a Wi-Fi hotspot called CentralPerk with no space between the words Central and Perk. A cyber criminals could create a fake access point called Central Perk with a space. Once connected to the fake hotspot your information is no longer safe.

Noton offers the following suggestions when connecting to Public Wi-Fi

Don't allows your device to automatically to connect to Wi-Fi netowrks

Don't log into accounts via apps over wi-fi. Use your devices browser and navigate to the HTTPS website of the service

Don't leave your Bluetooth or Wi-Fi always on.

Don't access websites with sensitive financial or Medical info

Avoid networks that are not password protected.

Diable file sharing if you have that option on your device

Only visits sites with HTTPS at the front of their web address

Log out of accounts and websites when you are done instead of just closing a browser window

Use a VPN/Virtual Private network, which we'll talk about in another episode.

On a final note. Please take a minute and leave us Voice note at https://anchor.fm/usbog/message. I'd appreciate any feedback on or topic suggestions for the flash briefing and soon to be podcast. The links will be in the show notes also.

Thank you again for listening and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.

A common attack over Free wi-fi is called a Man-in-the-Middle attack. This is when a cyber criminal is connected to the same wi-fi network, and gets in between and reads the data transmission to and from your computer and the internet.

Cyber Criminals can also buy special equipment that can help them eavesdrop on Wi-Fi signals. With this hardware they can see everythng you are doing in great detail such as shopping on Amazon or typing your credentials into your banking website.