The Dangers of Unprotected Hotel Wi-Fi

Different wi-fi hotspots, the same risks

It’s not only hotels that suffer from the dangers of having a publicly open Wi-Fi network, as cyber criminals will often hunt for their victims in a variety of hotspots, from the simplest coffee shop to free city-wide Wi-Fi that is becoming increasingly common in major cities. But when it comes to hotels, the truth is that you never quite know who’s in the other rooms; you’re all connected to the hotel’s Wi-Fi, and so while the physical space may not be shared, the digital one most certainly is.

Many hotels protect their hotspots with passwords and think that’s enough, but the credentials that they use are either easy to guess or are given without question at the front desk. Once up in your room, the unprotected online sessions browsing the internet will give the hotel access to the sites you visit, your social media and bank account details, and a whole lot more. This is also true for any other unwelcome guests with the appropriate skills and knowledge, who sometimes don’t even need to be in the hotel to spy on and hack the Wi-Fi and its users.

Also, as technology evolves, router firmware and other aspects of online browsing become obsolete and, instead of updating the tools to follow this, some of even the most reputable hotels invest more in front door security than in its online counterpart. In 2017, for instance, there was a massive credit card breach involving Hyatt Hotels that had repercussions in several countries. More recently, a case involving the Marriott demonstrated how hackers exploited vulnerabilities for four years and gathered piles of relevant information about guest’s reservations and other personal details. In both cases, this compromised data enabled fraud and identity or credit card theft, among other potential problems.

Traveling with a VPN and a password manager

Speaking of passwords, it is exceptionally important to make use of strong, unguessable credentials, preferably without any direct relation to you or your life. It’s true that these will be particularly hard to remember – especially in today’s world where we need to use a lot of them – but that’s where password managers come in, tools that lock all your credentials behind a master password.

In turn, this makes life easier since only that single combination of characters needs to be remembered, though increased security can be added with a secondary authentication option such as a fingerprint. And since password managers feature their own mobile apps, combining them with VPNs will make the pair of tools the perfect traveling companions.