Lo típico. Well-deserved vacation, suitcases just below the limits set by the airline, you arrive at the hotel and they give you the little magic slip: there is the Wi-Fi password so that as soon as you arrive you can connect to the Internet to share your experiences... Just when you start reading this article and notice the FBI's latest report: It is dangerous to connect to hotel Wi-Fi without being protected.
It is very common to connect to available wireless networks in restaurants, airports, shopping centers, hotels... It is a way to save mobile data or enjoy better speeds. However, this can be a problem for our security.
The current situation has caused telework to move to multiple locations, including hotels. In terms of security, for the FBI this poses a problem. Americans warn us of the risk of connecting (not only for work) to a hotel's Wi-Fi networks. The American agency has noticed a significant increase in this type of network among remote workers, and this exposes them to certain security risks.
What could happen? The FBI indicates that personal data is at risk, as well as the work resources being used. These networks are insecure and we cannot know who might be behind them, if they could access our devices and thus compromise privacy.
Uno de los motivos para que estas redes sean inseguras es que las contraseñas no se cambian con frecuencia. Esto quiere decir que no solo pueden acceder los huéspedes en ese momento, sino cualquier otro que pudiera encontrarse cerca y conociera esa clave. Podría haber intrusos con malas intenciones dentro de la red. Estos intrusos serían capaces de monitorear el tráfico, crear una red Wi-Fi gemela para comprometer usuarios, realizar ataques Man-in-the-Middle (alguien escuchando todo lo que hacemos), secuestrar datos o robar credenciales.
Fortunately, no todo son malas noticias. Existen posibilidades de conectarnos a este tipo de redes de forma segura. Algo fundamental sería utilizar una herramienta VPN. Like this, nuestra conexión va cifrada y los datos no se filtran ni quedan expuestos a cualquiera. Obviously, we must also have a good antivirus, this way we avoid malware entering.
At last, we need to use common sense and avoid unnecessary risks. This means not logging into sensitive services or exposing more data than necessary.