NEW DELHI (Sputnik): Accessing the internet via the free WiFi networks available at Indian airports and railway stations could be a risky affair. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) — the apex agency for countering computer security cases in India, has warned that such networks are highly vulnerable to cyber attacks.
"Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities allows an attacker to obtain sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails etc," the CERT said in a statement.
This warning comes after international research highlighted that WPA or WPA 2 encryption that is mostly used to connect the wireless networks is highly vulnerable to cyber attacks.
"The fact is that not only WiFi networks provided by airports and railways are vulnerable, but public WiFi network provided at hotels are also very much prone to cyber attacks. Android devices are most susceptible to cyber attacks. We should avoid this public WiFi and use wired networks till the problem is addressed by the various technology companies," Pawan Duggal, a cybersecurity expert told Sputnik.
Experts have also warned that a hacker could obtain unauthorized connection to a wireless network. They can capture every other system on the network and see what they are browsing. They can also disguise themselves as one of the users and take advantage of this.
The research has warned that users of Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows devices are most vulnerable to such attacks, technology companies are starting to respond. Microsoft has already issued an update that claims to address the problem. Google and Apple are also expected to soon come up with solutions.
