Stay Safe While Using Wi-Fi

In today’s world, the Internet has given us several things to do. With all the huge benefit we get online, come online threats that we need to be aware of in order not to fall victim of online criminal activities.   In this article, we wish to raise the level of awareness on some of the used online threats and specifically those that are very much applicable over public or weakly secured Wi-Fi connections, and how we can avoid taken advantage of.

Man In the Middle Attack

Some cafes and restaurants these days have Wi-Fi access, freely available to the public to use for surfing the web and doing other online activities.   Some people use these Internet access methods to login to their banking accounts or do some online shopping.   

While access is freely available to everyone, this includes the bad guys who we call “crackers or hackers” who want to steal your data.  As you login to your bank web site or do online shopping you transmit very important personal data across the network which could possibly be intercepted through what is called “Man in the Middle Attack” or in other words, the person who tries to get between you ( “your computer” ) and the site you’re trying to access. This gives them the right amount of data to capture your online transactions, including your login credentials.

For transmitting personal information online, it’s highly recommended that you login through your private highly secured network, at your premises to avoid such attack.

Evil Twin Attack

As hotels, Internet parks, cafes, and restaurants try to limit access to only their customers, they often create what we call “Internet access” page where the customer is given a code to access with, in order to continue over to the Internet.  This page could possibly be faked by a “cracker” trying to intercept all your traffic data after you’ve successfully accessed the Internet using their page and not the official page of the place you’re staying at.

This usually happens as for a “normal user” it might be little difficult to notice the difference between both pages.

In order to be safe, you need to check with the hotel front desk, the concierge, or the head waiter whether this is the right page to access before you start using the Internet. Or if you’re in a park where the internet is provided ( iPark ), you should contact the call center to verify the authenticity of the page.

War Driving Attack

Now, hackers use their cars along with highly sophisticated hardware and software technology which is widely available in the market to locate wireless networks with weak or no security available in their neighbor.  The moment they’re able to access your network, the easier it will get to intercept all your traffic data including your login credentials and much more personal information about you and your family.

In order to avoid such attack, it’s highly recommended to put on security configuration on your Internet access devices (“routers”) using the technology “WPA2” to securely protect your passwords and data from eavesdropping.

For more information on online safety, please keep in touch with Safe Space website and follow the hashtag on Twitter #safespaceQA.

-stay safe, stay connected-