So you head to a new café, you see there’s free Wi-Fi. You have a little work to do, need to check your emails and transfer some money across bank accounts to cover that extra shot of espresso you just ordered, so why not?

But did you check that Wi-Fi really belongs to the café?  Why didn’t it require a password? Could this actually be an ‘Evil Twin’?!

An Evil Twin Network is a fraudulent Wi-Fi Access Point which poses as a legitimate one. It is set up by hackers to eavesdrop on wireless communications. So if you were to access your bank, log in to email, or access your company network, this information would be monitored with a view to stealing login credentials, financial data, personal information etc and they may also install malware on your device.

To prevent this type of attack there are precautions that you can take:

• Avoid unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots
• Disable Auto-Connect on your devices
• Take note of warning notifications – never ignore these
• Avoid logging in to private accounts on Public Wi-Fi
• Use a VPN – this will encrypt, or ‘scramble’ your online activity
• Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA or 2FA) on all possible accounts

Public Wi-Fi can be a little like public conversations – always consider who could be listening and don’t say anything that you wouldn’t want them to hear.