What is in here?

• The risks of using public.

• tips on how to stay safe when accessing WiFi in public areas using public WiFi.

• New updates on chatGPT.

Public WiFi can be a serious threat to both businesses and individuals who use it for work.

It's not uncommon to walk into public spaces on a regular weekday and see numerous customers diligently working away on their laptops. Nowadays, many entrepreneurs, students, and professionals consider these places their second office, taking advantage of the available WiFi. While most of these establishments offer free WiFi access, it's worth noting that this may not always be the case for customers.

  1.Risks.

It is important to understand the risks of using public WiFi to keep you situation-aware. A study carried out by the Kaspersky Security Network showed that nearly a quarter of the world’s public WiFi hotspots do not use any kind of encryption. It is critical to ensure that the WiFi network you are connecting to is encrypted. Nevertheless, there are still other threats posed in the use of public WiFi even if a hotspot uses encryption

1.Data theft

The theft of personal information is one of the most serious and frequent risks associated with using free WiFi. Personal data consists of:

• Account information (username, password, and passcodes)

• Financial data (details of a credit or debit card)

• Personal information, such as complete names, photographs, identity cards, or social security numbers

2. Man-In-The-Middle Attacks

Even where a cybercriminal fails to gain access to the data on your device, they can still intercept the information you are sending over the internet. This is how they can capture usernames and passwords, credit card details, and other confidential information.

You can think of a man-in-the-middle attack simply as eavesdropping. Two parties may be connecting to each other (via email, video calls, browsing, etc) but a third party intercepts their communication/connection.

3. Unencrypted Connections – Packet Sniffing

When you connect to a website that supports encryption, the data that goes back and forth is encoded using a secure key. If anyone was to intercept that data without the possession of the secure key, they would not be able to read it. The data would appear unreadable like computer code. This is in fact the ideal setup.

Unfortunately, not all websites offer encryption. If you have come across a website address prefixed with just HTTP, this is a sure way to know it is not encrypted. If it starts with HTTPS, then the website is encrypted.

4. Malware Distribution

Using public WiFi exposes you to the additional risk of having malware installed on your device by online criminals. Malware consists of: Worms, viruses, and Trojan horses

If your device is not properly secured, an attacker using the same public WiFi as you could install malware on it. Such viruses have the potential to damage your device or steal data from it.

Additionally, a dishonest WiFi service provider can take advantage of the situation to ad-overlay each website you visit. Normally, the adverts in this situation would stop appearing as soon as you disconnected from the free WiFi.

5. session can be hijacked

Session hijacking is another public Wi-Fi security threat. In this case, the attacker intercepts information about the computer and her connections to websites and other services. Once an attacker has this information, he can configure his computer to match yours and hijack your connection.

For example, a hacker could hijack your connection to the bank's online he portal after you log in. On the bank side, it still appears to be your device and you are already logged in, so the cyber attacker would have access to all your banking details on the portal.

6. Your Data May Be Captured and Sold to Advertisers

You may be working remotely such as when on a road trip, away on holiday or even stuck in traffic. You may find yourself connecting to public WiFi to check your email, view or download files, review clients’ details and so on.

As earlier mentioned, many of these public WiFi services are often offered free of charge. However, as you’ve probably already come to realize, “free” is not always free. There must be some benefit derived by the service provider to offer this for free. In this case, some WiFi service providers may be tracking everything you’re doing on the WiFi connection and sell your data to advertisers for a fee.

2.How to Protect Yourself From the Risks of Public WiFi

1. Use cellular data or mobile hotspots in public places

The surest way to avoid public WiFi threats is to avoid them. Even if you need to surf at a café while on vacation or otherwise, you should consider investing a little more to ensure that you can surf on a secure network. For example, consider using your smartphone or tablet as a portable WiFi hotspot with known cellular data from your trusted service provider's network.

Using your own private connection is not only more secure than a public WiFi connection. It is also faster as it’s not being shared with multiple users at the facility you’re at.

2.Don’t Access Sensitive Sites or Email

First, if you must connect to a public WiFi network with no protection measurements in place, make sure not to share anything private or log into any sensitive websites. This includes:

• Online shopping checkout (which would require you to key in your payment details)

• Internet banking

• Accessing medical or insurance (health, life) records

• Checking office

3.Keep your browsing to a minimum

Disconnect from public WiFi as soon as you find the information you need.

4.Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) Service

Where possible, use a virtual private network (VPN) when connecting to your business through a suspect connection like a public WiFi hotspot. With a virtual private network (VPN) service, everything you send and receive over a WiFi network is encrypted, regardless of whether the WiFi network or website you are accessing supports encryption.

With a VPN, you connect to the VPN server over an encrypted connection and everything you do gets routed through that server. This means that anyone trying to eavesdrop or intercept your data will not be able to read it anyway. Since most hackers are after an easy target, they’ll most likely discard any stolen data that is encrypted rather than going through the lengthy process of trying to decrypt it.

5.Use SSL(Secure Sockets Layer)

You may not have access to a VPN for general internet browsing. However, if you enable the “Always Use HTTPS” option on websites that require some kind of authentication (username and password), this will add an extra layer of protection. Most websites that need the user to log in support SSL.

 6.Use Two-factor Authentication (2FA)

Activate two-factor authentication wherever possible – especially for sensitive services such as your business email, online banking, and websites where purchases are done. Two-factor or multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your account beyond the password. This may be a security code sent to your smartphone via a specialized app such as Google Authenticator. It may also be a biometric mode of authentication such as fingerprint scanning, retina scanning, face recognition. It can also be through a physical device such as a key fob. If a hacker manages to capture your login credentials such as username and password, they will still not be able to access your account without providing this second mode of authentication. Read more on the benefits of two-factor authentication and why you should use it

7.Use endpoint protection on your devices

Where possible, use endpoint protection (antivirus, antimalware, firewalls) on all your machines and devices. These can help to automatically scan files downloaded on your machine.

Even individuals who take all the possible public Wi-Fi security precautions are going to run across issues from time to time. It’s just a fact of life in this interconnected age.

3.What's new in the tech world today.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT app can now search the web — but only via Bing

OpenAI has introduced a new Browsing feature for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, allowing them to search the web using Bing. While this feature is helpful for accessing up-to-date information, limiting ChatGPT's search capabilities to Bing has raised concerns. Bing may not be the most comprehensive search engine, and users are left without alternatives if Bing fails to deliver satisfactory results. Nonetheless, OpenAI has also implemented a convenient update that allows users to tap on search results to navigate directly to relevant points in the conversation.

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