Now the FTC has its say on hotel Wi-Fi
04.02.2015
First the FCC slapped Marriott International with a $600K fine for Wi-Fi blocking and issued a follow-up enforcement warning to the masses. Now the FTC has issued a hotel Wi-Fi warning of its own.
This one, however, is aimed more at would-be Wi-Fi users rather than establishments offering or blocking Wi-Fi access. The warning begins:
When you travel, have you used your hotel's Wi-Fi -- maybe to pay a few bills or catch up on a report you need to read You may want to think twice before logging in to accounts over hotel Wi-Fi. Hackers are using security vulnerabilities in hotel Wi-Fi to steal people's passwords and other sensitive information.
From there, the FTC goes on to explain that users can unwittingly load software from compromised hotel Wi-Fi networks that can result in a damaged network device or stolen data.
The FTC doles out the following basic but sound advice:
Bob Brown