{"id":59747,"date":"2022-11-07T15:24:09","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T07:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/?p=59747"},"modified":"2023-07-24T18:40:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T10:40:28","slug":"privacy-and-anonymity-public-hotspots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/en\/2022\/11\/privacy-and-anonymity-public-hotspots\/","title":{"rendered":"Privacy and Anonymity – Public Hotspots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/p>

Intro<\/em><\/span><\/h4>

With my newly started series about the Dark web (which will still continue) I had an idea about how I could \u2018branch out\u2019 for a bit, as there are some convergent things here that are of interest to us. The shared aspect of someone\u2019s activity on the Dark web and your daily usage of your favorite internet browser does indeed boil down to two things \u2013 privacy and anonymity.<\/span><\/p>

I want to expand a bit on that, and I will try to look at it from a few different angles, but for this article I want to talk about the usage of Public Wi-Fi for privacy, and anonymity.<\/span><\/p>

Public Hotspots<\/em><\/span><\/h4>

When you\u2019re on a public hotspot keep in mind that the owner of that hotspot is in fact Man in The Middle. This means that they can see your traffic, inject into your traffic, other users on the network can as well look at your traffic, attack you, even directly through your open ports. Also, this hotspot doesn\u2019t need to be the hotspot you think you\u2019re connecting to.<\/span><\/p>

That\u2019s a lot of different risks coming at you all at once. But how would you go on about dealing with this? And I don\u2019t mean not using the hotspot; let\u2019s say that for some reason we must <\/em>use that risky public hotspot.<\/span><\/p>

One good thing to do (as a best practice of sorts) is to disable whatever wireless technology you\u2019re not using, for example, Bluetooth, 3G, etc. It will also save some battery. If you must, try using a hotspot that has WPA2, AES, and avoid any hotspot that\u2019s using WEP, for example. Just run from those.<\/span><\/p>

Also, use SSL and TLS for encryption because without end-to-end encryption a threat actor might inject packets and attack you or your browser. Generally, for anything that\u2019s sent from your device, use encryption. This is somewhere where your VPN might jump in.<\/span><\/p>

The idea here is that the whole OS you\u2019re on is sending data that\u2019s encrypted, because you don\u2019t want some stuff that\u2019s in the background not to go through the encrypted tunnel messing your whole operation up.<\/span><\/p>

One other good thing to do is set up a firewall profile for public hotspots\/networks.<\/span><\/p>

Lastly, you can bring hardware into the mix by using a portable router\/firewall and connect it to the hotspot. The above ideas are the same as for the hardware, to add a layer of security to your connection, and hardware achieves that through physical separation. Of course, this might not be the best option for you, but in that case, at least try to stick with the bare minimum setup, and use a VPN, close those ports and services you won\u2019t be needing don\u2019t make it easier for your friendly neighbourhood hacker to compromise you.<\/span><\/p>

On the flip side, public networks\/hotspots, like internet caf\u00e9\u2019s, airports, hotels, etc, are a good way to protect your anonymity; given, if you set up correctly, and if those networks provide anonymous connection.<\/span><\/p>

Since this internet connection isn\u2019t registered to you, nor should have any connections to you, it is a good way to keep your anonymity.<\/span><\/p>

The things you should do when you\u2019re going to visit one of these public places to access Internet anonymously<\/em><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>

This whole scenario (somewhat) implies that your adversary has significant resources, and the consequences would be dire for you. Even if that\u2019s not the case, in my opinion, you can\u2019t really overdo <\/em>this stuff, as you can never be truly 100% risk-free and\/or secure which is why this has a place on the discussion panel \u2013 in my opinion.<\/span><\/p>

I am very interested in this topic, and for me this is all for educational purposes. Please be careful, know the risks, as well as your limitations, and please don\u2019t do any illegal activity! I don\u2019t want to bore you, nor to digress any more, but I feel the need to say this out loud, just in case.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

You will also want to follow your OpSec rules (this is something I covered<\/a> previously, but as a refresher I will add the list below too \u2013 slightly variated)<\/span><\/p>