By ian
•
10 May, 2020
So, rewind back a few years, back to sort of 2007. It was the age of the smartphone. More and more people had devices that allowed them to go online without a computer, and so public places like restaurants had to cater to this new trend. Public Wi-Fi was born, and the people rejoiced. A gift of a free WiFi network while you ate or had a coffee? Was it too good to be true? Sadly, that’s because it was. Connecting to public Wi-Fi is now a dangerous and highly stupid thing to do, and here’s why. The immediate problem with connecting to a public Wi-Fi is that in many cases they don’t have any security or safety. All you need to do is connect via a registration process and you’re good to go. This is, understandably, not a good idea when you think about what’s lurking in the shadows. Viruses, personal information theft, credit card skimming - these are all things you can look forward to if you make the mistake of connecting to a public network. A big problem is that a lot of people don’t read the fine print - by connecting to these networks, they are giving people access to their personal information whether they consent or not.