Your seatbelt may be secure, but is your internet access?
While connecting to free WiFi 30,000 feet in the air seems safe and easy — especially since everyone is doing it — travelers should be thinking about how secure their connection really is and start taking VPNs and other security risks into consideration.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) recently charged a man with establishing “fake free WiFi access points, which mimicked legitimate networks, to capture personal data from unsuspecting victims who mistakenly connected to them.”
The 42-year-old man had these “evil twin” WiFi networks on an airplane — while it was mid-flight.
When people on the plane tried to connect to the plane WiFi, “they were taken to a fake webpage requiring them to sign in using their email or social media logins. Those details were then allegedly saved to the man’s devices,” according to AFP.
“The email and password details harvested could be used to access more personal information, including a victim’s online communications, stored images and videos or bank details.”
An “evil twin” attack is when someone creates a hotspot with a name that will trick users to connecting to it, such as the name of a coffee shop, hotel or airline.
There are some easy ways to stay safe from this kind of cyberattack, and being mindful and aware is the key.
“To connect to a free WiFi network, you shouldn’t have to enter any personal details– such as logging in through an email or social media account,” AFP Western Command Cybercrime Detective Inspector Andrea Coleman said in a statement.
“If you do want to use public WiFi hotspots, install a reputable virtual private network (VPN) on your devices to encrypt and secure your data when using the internet,” she continued. “When using a public network, disable file sharing, don’t do anything sensitive — such as banking — while connected to it and once you finish using it, change your device settings to ‘forget network.’”
“We also recommend turning off the WiFi on your phone or other electronic devices before going out in public, to prevent your device from automatically connecting to a hotspot.”
