Free wi-fi hotspots pose data risk, Europol warns
Sensitive information
should not be sent over public wi-fi hotspots, to avoid hackers stealing
it, Europe's top cybercrime police officer has warned.
Troels Oerting, head of Europol's cybercrime centre, told BBC
Click people should send personal data only across networks they
trusted.
He said the warning was motivated by the growing number of attacks being carried out via public wi-fi.
Europol is helping a number of countries after such attacks, he said.
Stolen data
"We have seen an increase in the misuse of wi-fi, in order to
steal information, identity or passwords and money from the users who
use public or insecure wi-fi connections," he said.
"We should teach users that they should not address sensitive information while being on an open insecure wi-fi internet.
Sensitive data should only be swapped via home networks
"They should do this from home where they know actually the
wi-fi and its security, but not if you are in a coffee shop somewhere
you shouldn't access your bank or do all of these things that actually
transfer very sensitive information."
Mr Oerting said Europol, which helps co-ordinate
investigations into organised crime across Europe, was assisting several
member states who had seen attacks carried out on wi-fi networks.
The attackers were not using novel techniques, he said, but
relied on well-known approaches that attempt to trick people into
connecting to a hotspot that, superficially, resembles those seen in
cafes, pubs and restaurants and other public spaces.
'Man in the middle'
The attacks meant that data swapped when people communicate
with a bank, shop via the web or log in to social media sites could be
captured by attackers.
"Everything that you send through the wi-fi is potentially at
risk, and this is something that we need to be very concerned about
both as individual users but also as police," he told Click.
Mr Oerting's warning comes only a few months after the
European parliament turned off its public wi-fi system after it was
discovered that a "man-in-the-middle" attack was being perpetrated via
the service.
As its name implies, in this attack thieves attempt to insert
themselves between users and a hotspot to gather all data passing
between the two points.
The warning was echoed by Charlie McMurdie, former head of the UK's cybercrime unit and now a senior security analyst at PWC.
"A lot of mainstream criminals have identified there are easy
opportunities and vulnerabilities just walking down the street and
exploiting wi-fi networks that exist in every coffee shop," she said.
Rogue hotspots
Large companies were also falling victim to this type of
crime, said Ms McMurdie, because they were not watching out for the
rogue hotspots that are regularly turning up.
Sometimes, said Ms McMurdie, attackers used hotspots to get
at particular individuals rather than to grab all the data flowing from
everyone using a public network.
Everyone needed to be aware of what they were putting at risk
when they use wi-fi networks and the data it can potentially hand over
to criminals.
"There is the need for raising awareness of what the
vulnerabilities are and what you should be doing to protect yourself
whether you're on the move or in a physical location," she said.
The BBC Click investigation into how safe public wi-fi hotspots are can be seen on the Click TV show this weekend.
