Whether you are someone who travels the world constantly on business, a student often visiting the local coffee shop to work on some assignments, or any other person who prefers using public Wi-Fi networks, this article is for you. Did you know that the same public networks that you use are also used by people with malicious intent? Yes, people across the world have faced the consequences of using unsecure public Wi-Fi networks and accessing their personal and sensitive information via those networks. If you are new to this topic, you should learn about the different ways online fraudsters can attack.

DNS Spoofing

Also referred to as cache poisoning, DNS spoofing is a form of computer attack where you will be forced to move to a fake website that will often be camouflaged to look like the real one. The reason behind this is to steal vital information of the users and also to divert traffic. When a network or system gets hacked, the hacker will be able to access all required information and can then convert the DNS servers into malicious ones. As a result, the hacker will easily gain control of the websites you visit, making you a victim of online phishing attacks, and this often happens on public Wi-Fi networks.

Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attacks

This is another form of attack in which the hacker will interrupt your communication with another entity without your knowledge and can also alter the same while still making you think that you are actually communicating with the actual person or entity. This allows the hacker to easily eavesdrop your communication and hence gather all your personal information, including your financial information like credit card details, internet banking details, etc. Once again, these attacks are especially common on public Wi-Fi networks.

Packet Sniffing

While in general packet sniffing is carried out to monitor network traffic to make sure that the overall flow is smooth, this software is often known to be infiltrated by hackers with the aim of monitoring and gathering all the network traffic. The purpose of this attack is to steal users’ personal information, such as your user IDs, passwords, and also financial details.

These are only a few of the most common attacks that are conducted over public Wi-Fi networks. Since most networks are known to be open, carrying out such attacks are easy for them.

But, you can still prevent such attacks by using a reliable service called Virtual Private Network (VPN). When you subscribe to a VPN service, your network connection, regardless of where you are, will automatically be encrypted by the VPN, as a result of which your entire online traffic will remain secure and protected at all times. This in turn will help prevent malicious attacks online and thus protect all your valuable information from snoopers and other fraudsters.

Top 5 VPN Services

Following are the top 5 VPN services you can use to prevent public Wi-Fi attacks: