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That coffee shop WiFi in Portland made me rethink public network safety
I was working from a hipster coffee spot on Division Street last month and noticed something odd. The place had two WiFi networks listed, both named after the shop, but one was open and the other was password protected. The barista told me the open one was for customers and the password one was for staff. I tested the open network and it was completely unencrypted, no WPA2 or anything. I could see the traffic from five other laptops in the room using a basic free tool on my phone. That shop sees maybe 200 people a day and nobody seems to think twice about using unsecured coffee shop WiFi for email or banking. Am I overreacting or should places like this be forced to use better security?
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dianas5026d ago
Used to think coffee shop WiFi was fine, now always use a VPN.
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hayden70919d ago
That exact scenario is why I stopped trusting open networks, which is a shame because I used to live at coffee shops. What finally clicked for me was realizing that the barista probably doesn't even know how easy it is to grab data, they just want people to have internet. I started using my phone's hotspot for anything sensitive, and honestly it's not that big of a hassle, just takes a few extra seconds. For the random web browsing, I'll still hop on the shop WiFi but my password manager and bank apps are locked down on my cellular data. It's not about forcing every shop to get a security degree, it's about treating their free WiFi like a public park bench, fine for sitting, but you wouldn't leave your wallet there.
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