The Dangers of Public Wi-Fi: What You Can Do to Stay Safe.

Article written by: Eshaan Jagpal

Article designed by:  Eshaan Jagpal & Palak Tiwari

Imagine going into a coffee shop to get your favorite drink-ready to feel energized and get your work done. You pull out your laptop and notice you are not connected to the internet. As a result, you quickly connect to the first network you see. There's no password for it, so you can quickly start your work. You log into all your accounts with their respective passwords, finish your work, and then go on with your day. Later that evening, when you go to access your accounts, you see that your information has been compromised. You can't find any of your work, and your account passwords have been magically changed, locking you out of your own account. This is the result of not taking precautions when connecting to the public internet.

What is the Public Internet and How Can It Affect Me?

Public Internet is something everyone uses on a day-to-day basis,whether it is at work, school, a restaurant, or even a hotel. However, most people don’t know how the public internet can potentially be the cause of many cybersecurity attacks. Free Wi-Fi is sought after by hackers because it does not require any sort of authentication in order to establish a network connection. This makes it easy for hackers to gain access to unprotected devices that are connected to the same network. Hackers can also inject malware or other viruses into the user’s device when they gain access through public Wi-Fi. 

What You Can Do

There are many things you can do to stay safe when connecting to some sort of public Wi-Fi:

1. VPN: When using a VPN, it encrypts your device’s connection, making it harder to be tracked by different websites and platforms.

2. SSL Connections: When accessing websites, there is usually an option to enable “Always Use HTTPS”. When activated by the user, this action forces the website to use a more secure version of HTTPS.

3. Turning Off Wi-Fi: If Wi-Fi is not necessary at all for your use, then disabling it is always a good option. Disabling Wi-Fi will decrease your chances of getting hacked in a public area.

Works Cited

“Public Wi-Fi Risks and Why You Don't Have to Fear Them.” Kaspersky, https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/public-wifi-risks. Accessed 5 August 2025.

“What is a VPN? Why Should I Use a VPN?” Microsoft Azure, https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-vpn. Accessed 5 August 2025.

“Why use HTTPS?” Cloudflare, https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/why-use-https/. Accessed 5 August 2025.