Be careful if you connect to public WiFi

[Zaka1221]

I don't think there's anything wrong with using public Wi-Fi. The most important thing is the device and what's on it that you connect to public Wi-Fi. If you have a wallet or other sensitive data on it, then yes, you shouldn't use it.

 However, if you have a phone that doesn't have a wallet or anything else that could be stolen, then I don't see anything wrong with using Wi-Fi

 Many cities have public Wi-Fi, and you can log in using your phone number


I've come across public wifi without authorization a couple of times, and I prefer to stay away from them

Bro, you said If we don't have crypto wallet  "don't see anything wrong with using Wi-Fi." It's a complete failure to understand the security operation. You have your email, passwords, credentials even though we don't have wallet on that phone, but hacker can steal our credentials and use them for other means. And you are saying to connect with public WiFi using your phone number this is how our data gets targeted phishing attempts. I know a little bit about cyber security and i will suggest never use your credentials on public WiFi and not using this type of internet. Security is not just about wallet, our face, our identity still hold much more important things than wallet.

[Davidvictorson]

If you often visiting cafe to hanging around with your friends, you should be careful using public WiFi. We don't know how the cafe set the security for their customers but I heard the cafe can trace their customers activity while connecting to the WiFi.

I know this from conversation with my cousin when I meet him few days ago, he told me that many cafe's offers free WiFi to attract customers visiting their place. But some local cafe or public service places use this chance to gets the internet history of their customers, even they can get the log of banking credentials of their customers.

If you use free WiFi from a cafe or local store or hotel, you should not login to your mobile banking app but if you really need to login to your mobile banking app, make sure you use data connection from your phone to avoids the hacking.

Your security will be your responsibility so make sure that you can be careful if you connect to public WiFi and don't login to anything personal.

PS: I am sorry if this is not the right board. Please tell me and I will move it to the right one.

You are absolutely correct.
Any WiFi that is not from your personal home should be designated a high risk.
While in fact of the these free public WiFi may not access your data etc but the threat is still very real.
There have been too many sad stories about it.
Do not be a statistic.

[batang_bitcoin]

You are absolutely correct.
Any WiFi that is not from your personal home should be designated a high risk.
While in fact of the these free public WiFi may not access your data etc but the threat is still very real.
There have been too many sad stories about it.
Do not be a statistic.

Even if I am in total desperation that I have to connect to the internet, I'll avoid connecting to the public wifi connections. I'll beg for money to buy myself a data connection than to do it with the free one. If that's me in a situation that I have to contact through the internet or needs an access to do a thing or two. I've got a personal experience of it once before and I am not going to do it ever again. I've felt that I was under in a surveillance just after connecting to one and yet that connection was terrible and slow. Fortunately, nothing bad happened and that old phone of mine was broken already since it happened years ago.

[Popkon6]

Those who do not pay attention to these small things are the ones who are mainly in danger, because if your important device gets hacked, your information will be leaked and if your confidential information is stolen, you will definitely face danger. So you should definitely be careful about all these things.

Your security will be your responsibility so make sure that you can be careful if you connect to public WiFi and don't login to anything personal.

I do not connect to any external network, and although I personally use the internet. However, I find the free WiFi available in the hotel restaurants and various cafes and tourist attractions to be definitely dangerous. Because they seem to have set up a trap for danger, otherwise why do they distribute free WiFi in public places?
However, I have seen posters on the walls in the city with a scanner (QR Code) for the WiFi password. I have noticed this and have prevented all my friends from connecting to this WiFi, connecting to WiFi in this locality is definitely risky because everyone has confidential information in their mobile devices.

[kawetsriyanto]

This is really a good reminder to many people who always find free Wi-Fi as a reason to visit some Cafe. I know someone that always visit places that offers free Wi-Fi and buy their stuffs and when they don’t offer Wi-Fi then he’s not going to get anything from that store.

I also have some friends that they do the same way. I quite often remind them to be careful with public WiFi. I don't know whether they follow my suggestion or not.
Well, at least we have tried to remind them!

After going through this post and read how risky it can’t be with this free Wi-Fi and how they can easily gain access through our internet activities, then I bring it to his notice that how easily things can be exposed when using free Wi-Fi and now he knowns and his security conscious right now about using free Wi-Fi.

You've done a great job that your friend has been aware of the big risk of the public WiFi. Actually, he can google himself to know the risk of free WiFi or public WiFi. But some people don't really care about it if they don't see the cases themselves. Even worse, some people just realize after they are experiencing it themselves.

People will go so far just to take anything from others, the world is just a cruel place to be and the more we keep finding out how the world is dangerous the more we get to know deeper and be very conscious on minor things we take for granted.

In this world, we must be careful in any where.
Criminal acts can happen anymore whenever the bad people see the opportunity.
So, we must be careful with whatever we are doing.

[suhadi88]

Bro, you said If we don't have crypto wallet  "don't see anything wrong with using Wi-Fi." It's a complete failure to understand the security operation. You have your email, passwords, credentials even though we don't have wallet on that phone, but hacker can steal our credentials and use them for other means. And you are saying to connect with public WiFi using your phone number this is how our data gets targeted phishing attempts. I know a little bit about cyber security and i will suggest never use your credentials on public WiFi and not using this type of internet. Security is not just about wallet, our face, our identity still hold much more important things than wallet.

You’re right Zaka1221, I agree that they are now looking for victims—essentially seeking company for when they get jailed—by sending transactions or linking TxHash to their malicious addresses. We might be completely in the dark, but an investigation could escalate, eventually leading to formal suspect status... and that becomes a real hassle.

I share your view on the need for wisdom and caution regarding usage; we shouldn't do everything on a single device—browsing, making calls, and handling BTC trading and accumulation all in one place.

[Pablo-wood]

Using public WiFi exposes users to high risk of vulnerability. The major risks i'm usually concerned about are

• Malware injection
• Man-in-the-middle attack
• Fake hotspot

I came to understand the risk of  opening crypto wallets, exchange apps or even typing in  seedphrase on a public WiFi. Even as simple as checking of balance can expose  session data which might lead to account takeover later. If there be any need at all to use a public WiFi the best approach is to either use a trusted VPN, avoid any things sensitive and disable auto-connect to open networks on the device.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

I also have some friends that they do the same way. I quite often remind them to be careful with public WiFi. I don't know whether they follow my suggestion or not.
Well, at least we have tried to remind them!

People who are open-minded, ready to learn, ready to change will change their practice. They even do their own research for learning after getting reminders from you. In contrast people who are close-minded, are not ready to learn and change themselves will maintain their bad habit.

You are kindful by reminding it to your friends many times but it's their responsibility for changes or not. You can throw some resources for them to learn too.
Why privacy matters?
VPN, Tor & Networks guides.
Awesome privacy.
The value of privacy.

[Somegory]

Are people still visiting the cafe in this time ? Cafes are long gone because everybody now have Access to smartphones and laptops, I can remember in 2005, you will have to get down to a cafe to use a computer and the internet, today things are different.

If any one still runs a cafe right now they are wasting their time because that business can never be lucrative, today it's all about gaming center with sports bets and casinos.

Public WIFI is nowhere to be found, data is very costly right now and no company or business will on their WIFI so that some customers will use them for free, I'm fact anything that's free today are dangers flashing.

[mabji1]

Are people still visiting the cafe in this time ? Cafes are long gone because everybody now have Access to smartphones and laptops, I can remember in 2005, you will have to get down to a cafe to use a computer and the internet, today things are different.

If any one still runs a cafe right now they are wasting their time because that business can never be lucrative, today it's all about gaming center with sports bets and casinos.

Public WIFI is nowhere to be found, data is very costly right now and no company or business will on their WIFI so that some customers will use them for free, I'm fact anything that's free today are dangers flashing.

Configure devices to never join open networks automatically, as this prevents phones from "pinging" and connecting to malicious "honeypot" access points.

[GiorgoArm15]

Are people still visiting the cafe in this time ? Cafes are long gone because everybody now have Access to smartphones and laptops, I can remember in 2005, you will have to get down to a cafe to use a computer and the internet, today things are different.

If any one still runs a cafe right now they are wasting their time because that business can never be lucrative, today it's all about gaming center with sports bets and casinos.

Public WIFI is nowhere to be found, data is very costly right now and no company or business will on their WIFI so that some customers will use them for free, I'm fact anything that's free today are dangers flashing.

Yeah, and today with AI and tech moving this fast, I’d be even more careful with public Wi-Fi

Years ago I could connect to random cafe Wi-Fi without thinking twice. Now? No chance 😄 There are just too many ways to steal data, fake networks, intercept traffic, etc. I’d rather use my mobile data or hotspot even if it costs more

Free Wi-Fi doesn’t feel so free anymore

[Bd officer]

If you use free WiFi from a cafe or local store or hotel, you should not login to your mobile banking app but if you really need to login to your mobile banking app, make sure you use data connection from your phone to avoids the hacking.

Your security will be your responsibility so make sure that you can be careful if you connect to public WiFi and don't login to anything personal.

It is best to avoid free/public WiFi.
Why should we use free WiFi? If absolutely necessary, then buy mobile data. We should always be careful that where something is given for free, there must be danger. In fact, hackers use various techniques, free WiFi can also be a trap, although not all public WiFi may be bad but we should be careful about this.

Personally, I have never used free WiFi. A few days ago, I went to a restaurant where a worker saw me using my mobile and asked me to connect to WiFi but I said that I do not use free things. If I had connected, then maybe I could have been in danger. If I ever go outside the house, I turn off the WiFi control center button so that free WiFi is not connected.

[Tonimez]

If you often visiting cafe to hanging around with your friends, you should be careful using public WiFi. We don't know how the cafe set the security for their customers but I heard the cafe can trace their customers activity while connecting to the WiFi.

There's a saying that there's no free food even in free town. Back in those days, an experiment was carried out in my college days (of which we never knew it was a test of students activities). This test was conducted by providing a free WiFi for everyone within the school environments. All you needed was your students details as the login details. This WiFi was made available for two months and was suddenly cut off followed by reports afterwards. That exercise revealed the activities of students around the school premises and their frequent sites which raised a lot of questions when it was published with the popular sites being far from academic oriented activities. More information could have also been collected too.

Using public WiFi should not be an option for any safety conscious person because you can endanger your privacy and expose yourself to scams. The sometimes read your login details and password to any site or app opened. I prefer using my own data than use public WiFi because data security is everyone's business and if you are not careful, your resources may get wiped out before you know it.

[Grace333]

I've heard about this several times, but I still don't know how people manage to pull this off, and this is unlike me. I like to focus and learn about threats so I don't fall victim to any one of them. However, before the end of today I'll do my best to properly research about this topic.
It's a good thing I don't usually like to connect to free Wi-Fi, even though it was listed among my paid services, but I guess knowing how it works will do me more good by increasing my resistance against the urge of wanting to use a public Wi-Fi. Most people might call it ego but it's actually being security conscious which is priceless.