We live in a century in which access to the Internet has turned from a luxury into a convenience, and most of the owners of mobile terminals or laptops have access to the mobile Internet. If the tariff plans of the telephone operators do not offer enough internet to browse freely for a whole month, which usually happens, then many users choose to use the networks Free Wi-Fi available in almost any respectable place, in malls, shopping centers or parks.
Although you will be happy to have at hand the possibility to quickly connect to the Internet to surf the web, stay on Facebook or send an email, you probably don't know what kind of dangers you are exposing yourself to. I wrote today an article about an extremely important change made by Apple, the transition from HTTP la HTTPS, a change that every application developer should make. Many of the applications from App Store transmit unencrypted data through the protocol HTTP to the servers, some even send them in clear text, and the connection to a network Wi-Fi public can make you vulnerable to hackers.
Just like in the case of the App Store issue, sending data over an unencrypted HTTP network allows hackers to intercept that data and possibly exploit your terminals, display false information, steal your passwords to various accounts, or see what send messages/files to anyone. Of course, not every application is vulnerable to such an attack, but for more than 2 years I prefer to use a data connection of the mobile phone operator and without exception avoid Wi-Fi networks that I do not know.
If the public Wi-Fi networks of some institutions/commercial centers can be attacked and broken by hackers, the danger is even greater when you connect to the Wi-Fi networks of ordinary users, because anyone can install a sniffer and filter all the traffic done through that hotspot, taking your unencrypted information. Although at first glance it seems a trivial thing, an application that logs in to Facebook/Yahoo/Twitter/YouTube without using an encrypted connection can leave you without the account of the respective service in a few seconds, and if we are talking about accounts in which you have attached a card, things get even more complicated.
My advice to anyone, in any condition, is to use a mobile data connection instead of a Wi-Fi HotSpot they don't know.
