A study by ESET suggests that approximately three-quarters (74%) of Russian web users connect to Wi-Fi hotspots in public places.
The survey showed that most often users connect to public hotspots in cafes (49%), hotels (42%), airports (34%) and shopping centers (35%). It should be emphasized that in answering this question it was possible to choose several options.
The most common use of public Wi-Fi networks is for social networking, with 66% of users reporting this. Other popular activities are reading the news (43%) and checking email (24%).
Another 10% go to banking applications and even make online purchases. Every fifth respondent makes audio and video calls.
Meanwhile, such activity is fraught with the loss of personal data. Attackers can intercept traffic, passwords from accounts in social networks, payment information. In addition, public Wi-Fi networks may lack encryption of transmitted information. Finally, users may encounter fake hotspots.
We add that in Russia there is a mandatory identification of users of public Wi-Fi networks. According to , only 1,3% of open access points in our country do not fulfill these requirements.
Source: 3dnews.ru