Vent: A hotel wifi hack in Denver made me stop using public networks cold turkey

I was at a conference in Denver last month and connected to the hotel's free wifi to check my email. Within an hour, I got alerts for three login attempts from a city I've never been to. The hotel's network was wide open, no password, and someone had set up a fake portal that looked legit. Now I'm totally against using any public wifi, even with a VPN, because that risk feels too high. But my coworker says I'm being paranoid and that a good VPN is enough for checking basic stuff. What's your take? Do you ever use hotel or cafe wifi, or do you avoid it completely?

3 comments

3 Comments

ericb668d ago

Stop using public networks cold turkey" seems like a big jump... a solid VPN should handle that fake portal risk. I still hop on hotel wifi with mine on, just for basic stuff.

ninabutler8d ago

But a VPN isn't a magic shield. Fake portals can still trick you before it even connects.

adam_nguyen77d agoMost Upvoted

Saw a tech blog post last year that broke down how those fake hotel login pages work. They can grab your data the second your device tries to auto-connect, before any VPN app even wakes up. The writer said the only real fix is to turn off auto-join for networks and manually connect with the VPN already running. It's a hassle, but it checks out.