Blind-trust: Raising awareness of the dangers of using unsecured public Wi-Fi networks

• Published in: Computer communications 2023-09, Vol.209, p.359-367
• Main Authors: Sangeen, Muhammad, Bhatti, Naveed Anwar, Kifayat, Kashif, Alsadhan, Abeer Abdullah, Wang, Haoda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access points; Protection motivation theory (PMT); Public Wi-Fi; Public Wi-Fi security risks
• ISSN: 0140-3664; 1873-703X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.comcom.2023.07.011

The use of public wireless access points (APs) has likely increased with the rise of wireless devices such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc. These devices make it easy for people to access the internet while on the go, and public Wi-Fi hotspots can provide a convenient way to do so. Even though public Wi-Fi networks provide free access to the internet as opposed to mobile data plans or data roaming, the use of public Wi-Fi hotspots can also pose risks to the security and privacy of users. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are often unsecured, meaning that anyone on the same network can potentially see the data being transmitted. This paper serves two main goals — to determine the risk awareness among users of public Wi-Fi networks and whether they still decide to connect to these networks when they are made aware of the possible risks to their data. For this purpose, we set up an experimental free wireless AP across three different locations for a total of 10 non-consecutive days and found that people mostly connected to use social media apps and search engines. After conducting these experiments and gathering sufficient data, we informed the users about their leaked credentials, and private data and observed their risk awareness and behavioral changes after being exposed to these risks. We found out that our findings align with the protection motivation theory (PMT) and heuristic approach.