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Whether working remotely from a coffee shop or checking email at a hotel after a long day of travel, most people have used unsecured public Wi-Fi without thinking twice. While free Wi-Fi is convenient, there are risks associated with connecting to public networks.
To find out more about people’s safety habits when using public Wi-Fi, our team at All About Cookies surveyed 1,000 people and asked them how often they use public networks, where they feel safest, and if they’ve ever been negatively impacted.
People have become very accustomed to having internet access at all times. While cell phones have their own dedicated networks that provide secure access to the internet, laptops and tablets typically do not. Even when using a smartphone, there are many common situations where people use public Wi-Fi networks instead.
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Nearly two out of every five people (38%) use public networks every single day, while 69% of people use them at least once a week. Only 9% of people say they never connect to public internet, meaning that the majority of the population is comfortable using public Wi-Fi networks.
Not all Wi-Fi networks are created equal, and users trust some more than others. The location of a public Wi-Fi network can go a long way toward influencing how safe or unsafe people feel it is.
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The most trusted Wi-Fi networks are found at libraries, with 80% of respondents reporting they feel safe using their public networks. The second and third most-trusted networks are at hotels (74%) and co-working spaces (73%) — two places where users typically need to be registered in order to know the Wi-Fi password.
Public parks were perceived as the least secure place to access public Wi-Fi, with 59% reporting feeling unsafe using park networks.
No matter where the network is located or how much someone may trust it, there are certain things all users should avoid while logged into public Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, not everyone is vigilant about these behaviors.
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Refraining from checking private or banking information is among the most recommended security measures experts suggest when accessing public Wi-Fi. Yet, more than half of internet users admit to logging personal information while on a public network, and 45% admit to accessing financial information.
This is a major danger given the ease at which identity thieves or other malicious actors can take valuable personal information, or even important data like routing numbers and social security numbers.
A good way to mitigate the risk of losing personal data is for users to ensure that any public Wi-Fi network they access is real and safe to use. Unfortunately, nearly half of people (47%) say they have connected to a public network in the past without verifying its legitimacy. This is a big no-no, as hackers and other bad actors can prey on people’s trusting natures and reliance on internet access by creating fake, unsecured networks that can look real but aren’t.
As long as public Wi-Fi networks are legitimate and secure, it is possible to use them safely, as long as users are smart and responsible while connected to them. Following the tips listed below can go a long way towards keeping data and devices safe while connected to public networks.
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The importance of these kinds of tips cannot be underestimated, as the consequences of security breaches can cause major issues for users. Things like viruses, stolen data, and hacked devices and accounts are some common results of security breaches caused by unsafe public Wi-Fi use, and they are distressingly common.
In fact, nearly one out of every five people (18%) has experienced a security issue along those lines as a direct result of using public networks. This ratio jumps to nearly one in four (24%) among people that access public Wi-Fi on a daily basis.
Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
New York University
There are three things that are important when it comes to Wi-Fi. There's public Wi-Fi, which is completely open, there's WEP, and then there's WPA. With public Wi-Fi, anybody on the network can see and interfere with what everyone else is doing.
And so if you're doing this, I know they're able to attack you fairly easily because the protocol is essentially just letting you have open communications on that wireless.
WEP is slightly more secure. It has a lot of the same problems as public Wi-Fi because it was not designed very well. So if you're on a WEP network, people can break in and see what you're doing and everyone has a shared key on that wireless network. So while it's a little better, it's comparable to having a door that's wide open versus a lock that is just a little lash that anybody who knows what they're doing can flip open.
A WPA network still has some security problems, but is much more secure. You should really be using WPA3, but WPA is still pretty good. Someone isn't going to be able to hack you if you're using a WPA network. The real problem is someone can interfere with, intercept, read, or even change the network traffic you send. So if you log into something thinking you're going to a legitimate site when you're not and you type your password in, they can get that information.
They're all going to be potentially problematic. One problem is figuring out what the actual Wi-Fi is. A lot of people will just open their phone or laptop and connect to something that looks legitimate.
If I see an airport network named “STL free wifi”, I'm going to think it's probably the legitimate wireless network here. Something that attackers can do is they can set up a network with a familiar looking name so you connect to their fake network while they connect to the actual wireless network and relay your traffic. Meanwhile, they can go and change things or read what you're doing. This is all to say the location of the network doesn't matter as much as knowing that you're actually connected to the correct one.
Things that are more sensitive, like banking or logging into your email or logging into your social media accounts. An attacker can potentially gain control of those while connected to a public network
There are some things you can do to actually protect yourself quite well against these types of things. One of the things you can do is you can use a VPN. The VPN software will basically always verify that it is correctly connecting to the VPN. And once that happens, all of the communication from your computer to the VPN is protected.
Another effective tool for doing this is a password manager. Password managers remember and save your passwords for different websites and those have protections built into them so that if someone tries to send you to a site name that looks just like the site, but isn't actually the site you’re looking for, your password will not autofill because it will not recognize the site.
Responses have been slightly edited for clarity.
Public Wi-Fi is a great convenience, but there are still ways to remain safe when using an unsecure network:
All About Cookies surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults about their public Wi-Fi use in August 2023.
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