Do you think twice before connecting to a public wireless network?

Wireless networks have become the most convenient way to connect to the Internet. You will never need to be in a place to connect your device to the Internet with an Ethernet cable.

Of course, there is a price we all pay sooner or later: wireless networks do not even have 20% security that an Ethernet network can have, which leads directly to theft of passwords, personal files, etc.

 I will explain a little why they are so uncertain and what we can do about it.

There are several types of wireless security. Some better set up, others not:

 1.WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy)  - An old security standard that has been replaced after 2-3 years. Why?

Because there are many ways to exploit and unauthorized access to this type of security. For attacks of this type, an example of software is the AirCrack suite, which will gather packets from the connection of other network users, after which, mathematically, will analyze the packages in order to crack your password. 

Of course, it's a brute force attack, but passwords are either standard, or easy to guess, so there will be no problem.(a password file can contain up to one billion passwords and is called "wordlist").

 2.WPA/WPA2(WiFi Protected Access)

Appeared after WEP and thus replacing it, is a security protocol that appeared in 2003.

It does not have good security, the same software (AirCrack) is used to capture packages. In this case, the brute force attack is used against data gathered until the connection was made.

 3.WPA/WPA2 with WPS available 

To turn on WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) is a big flaw in wireless network security. It attempts to simplify the connection process by using a randomly generated PIN. It is uncertain because the router will divide the 8-digit block into two blocks of 4 digits each. The router will separately check the first block of the second, making it easier to crack.

This process will take between a few minutes and a day. The attack is called "Pixie Dust Attack" and will capture the WPS hash values, trying to crack them offline.

What we can do? In my opinion, you should not even think of connecting to such a network.

But, if absolutely necessary, do not log in to accounts that are strictly private: bank accounts, accounts on social networking sites, etc.  Also, do not send private files or especially pictures that should not reach to your neighbor.

STAY SAFE!