‘20% Wi-Fi hot-spots in World Cup host cities potentially unsafe’

Moscow, June 12: If you are visiting Russia for the World Cup matches starting from Thursday, think twice before using open Wi-Fi networks.

A new research from Russia-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab on Tuesday warned that more than 20 per cent of Wi-Fi hot-spots in the host cities do not use traffic encryption, making them potentially unsafe for use by football fans visiting the cities.

The results suggest that football fans should take care of their personal data, especially while using open Wi-Fi connections around the FIFA World Cup games.

"The lack of traffic encryption, coupled with large-scale events -- like the FIFA World Cup -- make wireless Wi-Fi networks a target for criminals who want easy access to user data," Denis Legezo, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said in a statement.

Global events always result in a concentration of people connecting to networks to upload posts, stay in touch with loved ones, and share the fun with others.

However, at the same time, these networks can be used to transfer financial and other valuable information across the Internet. IANS