Beware of public Wi-Fi!

February 1, 2016 by Andy Crow at Chorus Business Advisers

Beware of Public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi is something that many small business owners and employees use for their day to day business. There is now thought to be 270,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK compared with around 200,000 2014. However there is a lack of awareness about cyber hacking and how cyber criminals use public Wi-Fi as a means to steal personal and financial details from individuals and businesses via pubic networks. 

Research from the Fraud Action website states that almost 80% of people said that they did not feel that the public Wi-Fi was any less secure than their own personal internet connection. In addition, 75% also said that they wouldn’t curb their activity on public Wi-Fi and they weren’t conscious of anything they may need to avoid doing whilst using it, showing a lack of awareness of the potential risk when using public Wi-Fi. 

One of the most common threats to public Wi-Fi is a ‘Man in the Middle Attack’; this is when a cyber criminal joins a public Wi-Fi network and relies on the established connection to the victim’s machine to redirect the communication flows through the attackers host network. This allows the hacker to incept sensitive data such as important emails, credit card information and security credentials of the user’s business network. If the user is reading company related data the entire network could become vulnerable.

Whilst Emailing and social networking are the top two things that people say they use public Wi-Fi for, if the user is reading company related data the entire business network could become vulnerable.

The Deputy Head of Action Fraud, Steve Proffitt said: “There is no doubt that people face risk when they connect to a public Wi-Fi network. It is important that people consider what they use public Wi-Fi for and are aware that there are cyber criminals that will use every opportunity to infiltrate networks in order to gather personal and financial details”.  

So if using Public Wi-Fi remember:-

• Be cautious. Always verify the authenticity of the Wi-Fi network before logging onto it. For example speak to an employee at the location that’s providing the public Wi-Fi connection, and ask for information about their legitimate Wi-Fi access point – such as the connection’s name and IP address.
• Use a trusted Virtual Private Network (VPN) service in order to secure your traffic. By using a VPN when you connect to a public Wi-Fi network, you’ll be encrypting all of your data that passes through the network.
• Use mobile data services such as 4G in preference to public Wi-Fi wherever possible.
• Don’t download applications to your electronic devices. 
• Don’t install any updates to programs on your computer. 
• Avoid accessing your emails, social network accounts or online banking services. 
• Don’t online shop and reveal financial details. 
• Report suspected fraud to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

Chorus Business Advisers can assist in any IT related questions for businesses or individuals. Please contact us on 0845 867 1263 or email [email protected] for more information.

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