The threat of malicious Wi-Fi hotspots that intercept user data is nothing new, but fake Wi-Fi incidents have recently reached new heights. In a case from Australia, for example, a passenger was arrested for setting up fake Wi-Fi hotspots at the airport and on board the plane during the flight.
There’s a good reason these days why passengers are more likely to use in-flight Wi-Fi: airlines are increasingly offering entertainment streamed directly to passengers’ devices rather than on the seatback screens. Once being connected to the airline’s media portal, they can not only have access to movies, music, games and other entertaining activities, but also can get internet access for an additional fee.
Unsuspecting passengers can also connect to a malicious Wi-Fi spot because its signal seems stronger, and then be redirected to a fake authentication page. This page would possibly request some credentials, like email address and password or social network credentials, supposedly to sign in to the airline’s online services. This data can then be used by cybercriminals to hijack accounts and access personal information.
“The insidiousness of this kind of attack lies in the victims’ limited options: stuck on board of a plane, connected to what they believe is legitimate Wi-Fi, they have just two options: either to provide the requested information, or forgo all in-flight entertainment. Therefore, the chances of a successful attack are very high, which makes it extremely important for travelers to be vigilant so that not to lose personal data and more,” – comments Maher Yamout, Lead Security Researcher at Kaspersky.
While the main advice about using public Wi-Fi would be: use 4G/5G cellular access instead of public Wi-Fi hotspots wherever possible, and when that’s not an option — protect your privacy with a reliable VPN solution, like Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection. But these won’t work on a plane.
So, here’s some tailored advice for staying safe when using in-flight Wi-Fi: