The Dangers of Public Wi-Fi - Cyber Tip Tuesday video 25 August 2020

Welcome to this week's Black Arrow Cyber Tip Tuesday, this week James is talking about public or insecure Wi-Fi.

Unsecured Public Wi-Fi is a minefield of security risks. If you're connecting to an unsecured access point or a network where the key is publicly available, such as an airport, coffee shop or public event then you're susceptible to a host of different types of attacks from people who want to steal your personal or company data.

Connecting to these networks without considering the security implications will mean that any malicious individual lurking about could have complete and unrestricted access to the data you transmit and receive, including usernames and passwords as well as the data on your device. They could even install malware that could compromise your more secure devices at home or at work when you reconnect to those networks later.

One popular technique to exploit people looking for "free Wi-Fi" is to advertise a free hotspot which is in fact a malicious network to capture data or install malware on the devices that connect to it. The best way to avoid the risks is to only connect to networks that you trust and if you really must connect to an unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot then use a VPN.

A VPN will wrap traffic to and from your device in an encrypted tunnel to prevent it from being intercepted or captured. If you'd like to know more about how you can protect yourself or your company, contact us today.