HIDEMYASS! EXPERIMENT: 7-YEAR OLD GIRL HACKS PUBLIC WI-FI IN LESS THAN 11 MINUTES

A 7-year old was able to hack into a public Wi-Fi hotspot and access a stranger’s laptop in less than 11 minutes.  

Alerting the public to the risks of using unsecured public Wi-Fi is something we at Hide My Ass! are really concerned about, so much so, that we ran a recent experiment to demonstrate how easy it is to hack into a public Wi-Fi hotspot, and what better way than setting the challenge to a 7- year old?

We set the challenge to IT-savvy primary school student Betsy Davies from Dulwich in South London, who was able to hack into a public Wi-Fi hotspot after she searched and watched a video tutorial online which explained how to hack a network. It took 7-year old Betsy just 10 minutes and 54 seconds to hack into a Wi-Fi hotspot. She then set up a Rogue Access Point which is often used by cybercriminals to trigger a ‘man in the middle’ attack allowing her to ‘sniff’ traffic.

Stay safe when using public Wi-Fi hotspots

The most secure way to protect your data from being hacked when using a public Wi-Fi hotspot is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).  A VPN encrypts all the data you send over the internet, sending it through a private VPN tunnel, meaning that if there is anyone waiting to steal your information, all they will see is a lot of mumbo jumbo. When you use a VPN, you are given a new personal IP (Internet Protocol) address and your data is encrypted, so when you use public Wi-Fi, every task you perform appears as if it is coming from the VPN.

Coverage

We’re delighted that our campaign to warn the public about the dangers of using public Wi-Fi hotspots has made the rounds in so many different publications, highlighting the fact that if a 7- year old is able to hack into public Wi-Fi, then anyone can!

Here are some of our favourites – where, of course, you can find out more information including how to stay safe on Wi-Fi networks and a Wi-Fi hacker’s glossary.

Daily Mail
Hacking Wi-Fi is child’s play! 7-year-old shows how easy it is to break into a public network in less than 11 MINUTES

Information Age 
How a 7-year-old girl hacked a public Wi-Fi network in 10 minutes

Yahoo
Children can hack into public WiFi

ITV
7-year-old girl takes just 10 minutes to hack into public WiFi network and access stranger’s laptop 

Irish Examiner
Child hacks public WiFi network to prove how insecure they are

Check out our great Wi-Fi safety tips to learn more.

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