Grey nomads are being warned to avoid using public WiFi hotspots to send or receive sensitive data because of the risk of it being intercepted by hackers.
Long-term travellers are often tempted to use hotspots at places like fast food restaurants, libraries or caravan parks to carry out activities such as internet banking or managing investments … but it can be a dangerous business.
These networks are often not secured and other users on the network can potentially monitor activity or steal data.
In Europe, Europol has just warned that attacks on public WiFi are increasing rapidly.
A recent study conducted by McAfee indicated some 66% of Australians used free WiFi. Alex B might be worryingly typical in that she often uses unsecured hotspots as she travels in her campervan.
“I am aware it’s something I shouldn’t do but it’s just so convenient sometimes,” she admits. “I haven’t had a problem yet but I know I should be more careful in future.”
The Federal Government, which operates a Stay Smart online initiative, told www.thegreynomads.com.au that grey nomads had previously been the victims of scams. And a spokesperson for the Department of Communications stressed the dangers of using WiFi hotspots.
“These are often open and unencrypted and a hacker may be able to break into your computer through a hotspot and access your personal information,” the spokesperson said. “Where you do use a WiFi hotspot in a public location it’s best not to do any transactions that involve financial or sensitive data.”
Connecting to a hotspot that doesn’t require a password is particularly risky and this is often the case at public libraries or fast food restaurants. Without it being secured with encryption, most of the internet traffic is sent in plain text and can be easily intercepted. Most caravan parks issue grey nomads and other guests with a password to access their hotspot and this means all the network traffic is encrypted using Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) security. This is far more secure.
For nomads who regularly access online accounts through Wi-Fi hotspots, getting a virtual private network (VPN) could be advisable. VPNs encrypt traffic between your computer and the internet, even on unsecured networks. VPN accounts can be obtained from a VPN service provider.
Other ways in which nomads can protect themselves are to always connect as ‘public’ when they are offered the ‘home’, ‘work’ or ‘public’ options, and to log out of an account as soon as they have finished using it. It also pays to try to use sites that use the more secure HTTPS address.
