Free Wi-Fi allows data to be collected by hackers, Europol warns
"Everything that you send through Wi-Fi is potentially at risk,” Troels Oerting, head of Europol's cybercrime centre, has warned the public, with hackers exploiting networks in order to gain data from smartphones.
"We have seen an increase in the misuse of Wi-Fi, in order to steal information, identity or passwords and money from the users who use public or insecure Wi-Fi connections," he warned.
"We should teach users that they should not address sensitive information while being on an open insecure Wi-Fi internet.”
It was suggested to the BBC that those logging into work accounts on free Wi-Fi could be providing information about employers, as the hackers put themselves between the data entered by the user and the data being passed to the hotspot.
Making sure that https secure sites are used was one key suggestion, ahead of the BBC broadcasting a special Click episode on the dangers of public Wi-Fi.
This comes not long after Pat Carroll, cybercrime expert and CEO of fraud prevention technology company ValidSoft, said: “It’s particularly worrying that nearly half of consumers fail to protect their mobile phones with even the lowest level of security. More action is needed from banks, payment providers, app providers and telco companies to sufficiently secure transactions, but consumer power can also be a powerful catalyst for change.”