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ITRC Public WiFi usage Survey Results

It is common these days to have access to the Internet wherever you go.  Whether you are checking email in a coffee shop or arranging flights from a hotel, you expect to be connected at all times.

Unfortunately, this wonderful new convenience has a dark side.  With the push to make public WiFi available in more and more places, security has taken a back seat to convenience. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has become increasingly concerned with the correlation between identity theft and public WiFi and recently conducted a survey on public WiFi usage amongst the public.

The findings of the survey were released in a whitepaper earlier this month and provide insight into both usage of public WiFi and the public’s understanding of this growing technology. Notable findings of the survey include responses indicating over 78% of consumers use public WiFi, and of those 53% use public WiFi at least once a week.  Of those respondents using public WiFi, 74% had used public WiFi in coffee shops and restaurants, 54% in hotels, and 38% logged on in airports.  The advertising of public WiFi to consumers as a means to attract them to coffee shops and restaurants is becoming more commonplace and likely accounts for the high consumer usage in them.

Alarmingly,  the survey found that consumers access public WiFi at doctors’ offices.  This begs the question of what type of connection did they have while using the internet and could they have been able to connect with the offices’ networks?  Doing so could potentially expose sensitive personal information if the network was not properly secured.It is the belief of the ITRC that public WiFi will continue to become increasingly available as institutions continue to implement WiFi hot spots in public places. Recently, governments of all levels have gotten involved.  New York and California are among two of the larger states pushing public WiFi into public places. These hotspots will, no doubt, become targets for data thieves hoping to tap into an unsuspecting consumer’s network as they use the free service.

The goal of the ITRC is to be sure that consumers are aware of the risks associated with using public WiFi and know how to protect themselves. The information gathered from the survey will be used to fulfill this goal. To read the full whitepaper and more information visit the ITRC website’s archived resources.

Nikki Junker is Social Media Coordinator and Victim Advisor at The Identity Theft Resource Center. She specializes in Identity Theft on social networks and smartphones. She enjoys working one on one with victims of identity theft as well as researching and writing about preventative measures for consumers.

Categories: Online Security

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