Free Wi-Fi Hotspots and How to Avoid the Evil Twin

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What is an evil twin?

An evil twin is a hotspot set up by a cybercriminal or hacker. It mimics a legitimate hot spot in just about every way.

The evil twin’s purpose is to eavesdrop on unsuspecting users and/or to insert themselves in the various data conversations happening between hotspot users and servers.

Once connected to you, the hacker or criminal may be able to:

Steal passwords, account names, etc.
View files that are being uploaded or downloaded.

The hacker could be sitting behind you in an airline terminal. The evil twin wifi signal could be emanating from their laptop with a signal that looks like the legitimate wifi signal. The name would just have been changed slightly. More.

How to defend yourself against an evil twin

Avoiding evil twins may be as simple as using an inexpensive VPN (virtual private network). With a VPN, you would

Log into the hotspot

Use the VPN in your mobile device to use an encryption tunnel to find a temporary VPN server.
Surf the web using the IP address of the temporary VPN server.

How PrivateVPN works

As soon as you log into a free wifi or any other unsafe site, open PrivateVPN. It will find an encryption tunnel to the country of your choice. In that country you will get a new temporary IP address.

You will have 55+ countries from which to choose. If the connection is too slow, try another country.

The hacker will be unable to find you. Your online data will be completely safe. You have a completely secure web event.

If you are using PrivateVPN for the first time, check out your temporary IP address. You can go online & search for what is my IP address? IP Lookup will give your IP address. Click on Get IP Details.

You will see data telling that you are in Belgium (or whichever country you chose). You start accessing the Internet. You download & upload data to your heart’s content. The evil twin cannot find any of your data.

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