Free wi-fi hotspots can be a danger to personal data.
The warning came from Europol which said that sensitive information should not be sent in public wi-fi hotspots because it could be accessed by hackers.
Personal data should be sent only across networks which are trusted, according to the head of the agency’s cybercrime centre.
Europol is aware of a growing number of attacks which have been carried out through public or insecure wi-fi which have captured information, identity or passwords and money from users.
The agency, which helps co-ordinate investigations into organised crime across Europe, is assisting several countries which had reported attacks carried out on wi-fi networks.
The attackers do not use novel techniques but rely on well-known approaches that trick people into connecting to a hotspot that might appear like those found in public places such as cafes, but can be used by criminals to see banking or shopping details.
The European Parliament recently closed its public wi-fi system when it was hacked in a “man-in-the-middle” scheme in which data thieves insert themselves between users and a hotspot to access all data between the two points.
