Warning: Never use public WiFi hotspot for anything important!

[jerrry94087 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jerrry94087]

I came across this device called WiFi Pineapple.

This is a hackers tool that, if left in the public WiFi area, would collect a wealth of personal information about the random WiFi users, maybe peacefully sipping coffee in Starbucks. It would break encryption, pretend it is some known to you access point, etc. It will become a man-in-the-middle and will screw you up. It is very intrusive and aggressive. It is designed this way. And it is very small too.

Please use VPN (Virtual Public Network) if you love to go online from Starbucks. You can set it up with your home router in most cases, and connect back to it form anywhere. It is free, you just need to learn few things. But it is well worth it.

Please share this info with the people you care about.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Wow, scary stuff.
You can buy anything on the internet.

[SallyHoover Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SallyHoover]

So if I am streaming video through Youtube or Amazon Prime would they be able to get into my info and steel passwords to my email or banking info if I am not doing those things using public wifi?

[jerrry94087 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jerrry94087]

Youtube is from google, they would probably get all cookies from the google account, and if you are logged on into for example gmail on your system, they might be able to be logged on as you using those cookies.

Pineapple is also able to actively modify your pages, it can insert the fake "change your password" screen. Or they may also add the link to some trojan and take control over your windows PC through this trojan. Pineapple opens many such opportunities. So it's better to use VPN all the time.

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

This can happen with your smart phone if you are in the wifi mode, correct?

[jerrry94087 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jerrry94087]

Most definitely