More than half (56 percent) of Brits that use public Wi-Fi rarely check if it is encrypted before logging on, says UK2.
Research conducted by the web hosting firm in conjunction with YouGov revealed more than two thirds (67 percent) did not know what VPN or Virtual Private Network means. However, 86 percent said they ensure their home Wi-Fi network is secure, indicating there is a discrepancy between ensuring safety when surfing the web from home and when on-the-go.
Nearly half (46 percent) of adult UK web users said they're worried about viruses when surfing the web, while 41 percent are concerned about phishing attacks and two in five claimed to be anxious about the threat of cyber-snooping or hacking while using mobile devices.
However, more than one in five (22 percent) admitted they'd entered a password for an email account when using a public Wi-Fi connection and 21 percent have logged on to their Facebook account. Furthermore, eight percent have used online banking services when connected to a public Wi-Fi network and 15 percent have entered credit or debit card details to make an online purchase.
"The results of our research on public Wi-Fi usage suggest that users prioritise convenience over taking sensible security precautions," says Russell Foster, managing director of VPNHQ, UK2's new service that lets web users to set-up their own VPN quickly and easily.
"The amount of personal data transmitted from mobile devices is growing, making them increasingly attractive targets for cyber criminals. Using a VPN is a simple, cost-effective and unobtrusive solution which exploits technology already native on almost every internet-enabled device on earth to provide security and peace of mind when using any wireless network."
Comments
Tom said: Good article and what would seem obvious you'd think. VPN's are excellent but you need a reputable provider as many are setting up shop nowadays plus WHERE the provider is based has consequences on the legalities of the data. Places like UK, USA as HQ is not a good idea but places such as Canada, Seychelles, Singapore, Iceland etc are much better.I use a really good provider called tuvpn which you can search yourselves if interested via a search engine. Based in Singapore they are very heavy about security and privacy with really good price plans.Servers in various locations across the globe from Spain, England to the Ukraine. Protocols offered are L2TP, PPTP, IPSEC, OpenVPN and SSH plus you have access to HTTP elite proxies on each server. So in effect you can actually connect via the SSH server which travels into the OpenVPN server and onto the web but via the browser take it further with a proxy.All secure connections 256 bit AES as standard.