Imagine this scenario: you've just landed in a new city. What's the first thing you would think of doing? Head to the luggage belt? Visit the washroom? No - it would typically be scanning for free Wi-Fi networks at the airport. It's sort of an automatic reaction that has developed ever since the smartphone boom.
It's not just airports though, as today, you can find free Wi-Fi pretty much everywhere - in malls, coffee shops, public transport, restaurants and in 2016, we're going to see this increase ten-fold with big conglomerates like Google as well and the Government stepping in to make public Wi-Fi ubiquitous in India. It's a great idea, and one that's been widely praised.
However, one of the pitfalls of public Wi-Fi is that it's easily open to attacks from hackers. According toNorton's Cybersecurity Insights Report, millennials seem to be the most vulnerable to attacks as most of their work, business, and socialising is done online. The report also found 77 percent of Indians would be devastated if their personal financial information was compromised and around 52 percent have experienced credit card fraud, or know someone who has.
Jagdish Mahapatra, Managing Director for Intel Security, India and SAARC, tells Gadgets 360 that the firm's recent study for India highlighted that diet or fitness related promotional links are something that cyber criminals run on a regular basis. He also states that 78 percent of Indian consumers consider dangers of unsafe online search terms but click on promotional diet [weight loss] links. That said, 44 percent of survey respondents have purchased a service or product from a promotional link without knowing whether or not it's a secure site. Many respondents reported their willingness to share information like email address (79 percent), full name (72 percent) or age (53 percent) with a website, service or company in hopes of reaching their goal weight or dream body.
Jagdish Mahapatra, Managing Director for Intel Security, India and SAARC, tells Gadgets 360 that the firm's recent study for India highlighted that diet or fitness related promotional links are something that cyber criminals run on a regular basis. He also states that 78 percent of Indian consumers consider dangers of unsafe online search terms but click on promotional diet [weight loss] links. That said, 44 percent of survey respondents have purchased a service or product from a promotional link without knowing whether or not it's a secure site. Many respondents reported their willingness to share information like email address (79 percent), full name (72 percent) or age (53 percent) with a website, service or company in hopes of reaching their goal weight or dream body.
How can a hacker get your data?
The biggest problem with public networks is the lack of authentication. To join a free network, you typically have to tap the desired icon, enter some credentials like your mobile number in a browser window (if at all) and you're good to go.
The biggest problem with public networks is the lack of authentication. To join a free network, you typically have to tap the desired icon, enter some credentials like your mobile number in a browser window (if at all) and you're good to go.
There isn't any password required to join as you would normally have at home or in private networks. This means anyone can join the network and start tapping into your information very easily. In fact, Mandar Bale, Strategic Business Manager at FireEye, tells Gadgets 360 that even browser plugins like Firesheep have demonstrated how easily Web sessions can be hijacked in order to steal credentials.
The most common type of attack, he explains, is known as the man-in-the-middle attack. Here, the hacker is able to exploit a security flaw in the network to position himself between you and the access point. Bale adds that devices such as Wi-Fi Pineapple make it very easy to perpetrate such attacks. This way, all the information that's passing between you and the Internet is first intercepted by the hacker.
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