What's the first thing you do when you arrive at your hotel? Check into Wi-Fi, obviously. Everything else, like unpacking, eating, drinking, and enjoying yourself, comes after.
But a new report by NBC’s Today Show has raised concerns about the safety of your personal information while using hotel Wi-Fi.
According to journalist Jeff Rossen from The Sun, he and a security expert, set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots at a hotel in Cancun, Mexico to see how easy it would be to steal personal information from guests. The pair duped guests by naming their Wi-Fi similar to the official hotspots and were able to see transactions, flight info, and banking info when anyone logged on.
So, what can you do to stay safe? Make sure you ask someone working at the hotel for the official Wi-Fi network name before attempting to log on. Today's advice is to enter the wrong room number in the system when it asks for it. If you are allowed in any way, the Wi-Fi is probably dodgy, while real hotspots won't let you access them without the correct information.
Another option is to invest in a Virtual Private Network (VPN). We covered VPNs in Issue 2-42 and Issue 4-13.
Rossen and the security expert also suggested hitting 'forget this network' whenever you leave a place so that you are never automatically logged onto a network without realizing it.
But a new report by NBC’s Today Show has raised concerns about the safety of your personal information while using hotel Wi-Fi.
According to journalist Jeff Rossen from The Sun, he and a security expert, set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots at a hotel in Cancun, Mexico to see how easy it would be to steal personal information from guests. The pair duped guests by naming their Wi-Fi similar to the official hotspots and were able to see transactions, flight info, and banking info when anyone logged on.
So, what can you do to stay safe? Make sure you ask someone working at the hotel for the official Wi-Fi network name before attempting to log on. Today's advice is to enter the wrong room number in the system when it asks for it. If you are allowed in any way, the Wi-Fi is probably dodgy, while real hotspots won't let you access them without the correct information.
Another option is to invest in a Virtual Private Network (VPN). We covered VPNs in Issue 2-42 and Issue 4-13.
Rossen and the security expert also suggested hitting 'forget this network' whenever you leave a place so that you are never automatically logged onto a network without realizing it.
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