You Need to Be Careful With Public Wi-Fi Networks

When you’re out and about, Wi-Fi can be hard to come by. That’s why it’s so useful to connect to public networks at coffee shops, airports, hotels, wherever you happen to be. But these networks aren’t exactly secure, and could be more trouble than they’re worth. 

The biggest concern with public Wi-Fi networks is that most are not encrypted. If you join an unencrypted network on your computer, say from your local cafe, that means the connection between your device and the network is not protected. If a bad actor wanted to see what you were up to, they’d be able to with ease. 

With an encrypted connection, however, all that would-be hacker would see is a seemingly random scramble of data. Unencrypted, however, and that person has carte blanche access to your data. 

Not only can bad actors see your internet traffic on these Wi-Fi networks, they can see the information you’re sharing with that network. That means, when you use your credit card at that store, the bad actor can see that information. When you log into your bank, they can see your credentials for that account.

With the rise of unlimited data from cellular services, we’re relying on public Wi-Fi less and less. Still, there are times we need to connect to an external network, and our only option is an unprotected connection. If you must use public Wi-Fi, try to make sure you don’t reveal any private information. Especially stay away from any services that relate to finances!