Your IT Consultant

Information Technology Blog
by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Should You be Using Public WiFi?

August 12, 2014

Sometimes you just can’t believe that people can be so ignorant. A case in point is the 2014 Communications Market Report from Ofcom. Naked Security reported that more than three quarters (77%) of people believe that using public WiFi is totally safe. They’re also not afraid to use public WiFi for doing such tasks as:

  • Streaming or downloading movies, films, programs, etc.
  • Playing online games
  • Downloading apps
  • E-mail
  • Shopping online
  • Social netowrking
  • Online banking
  • Communicating via Skype, WhatsApp or Viber

Perhaps more concerning is that 72% of the surveyed users believe that public WiFi networks are just as secure as their home Internet connection. I supposed that is a consistent result since 67% of users don’t even password protect their home networks. Just like the famous quote from the movie Jaws, “I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and BITES YOU ON THE ASS!” Perhaps we need WiFi with teeth.

E-mail:   Phone: 703.359.0700
Digital Forensics/Information Security/Information Technology
http://www.senseient.com