"public Wi-Fi means instant hacking"
loresecurityprivacy
A decade-old truth gone stale: with HTTPS now near-universal, the café network sees hostnames, not contents. The realistic risks shrank to fake portals, rogue twins, and the rare unencrypted service.
The EFF - once the loudest public-Wi-Fi warner - published 'Why Public Wi-Fi Is a Lot Safer Than You Think' (2020) after HTTPS adoption changed the math. Caution, yes; panic, no.
Disputed / commonly mistold A popular version of this story is inaccurate - see the note above.
Sources
- EFF - Why Public Wi-Fi Is a Lot Safer Than You Think (2020)
- Google Transparency Report - HTTPS usage across the web