If you can avoid being on an open network, please do so, because the hazard of hackers are real. And they can find out a whole lot of personal information about you. Some of it is downright scary. Actually, all of it, is just too scary. Here's just the tip of the iceberg:

1. The first is obvious: your passwords

Losing a password is scary. Your digital life can be over in an instant if a hacker means malice. From emails to bank accounts and more, there's more at risk than you think.

2. Your location history

Data on open networks can be intercepted, and allow a hacker to know all the previous names of networks you've been connected to. While some wifi networks have names that don't mean anything, some can actually give away where you've been. From there, a hacker can deduce more like if you were on a holiday, and where you stayed, etc.

3. Some WiFi networks are fake, designed to steal your data

Hackers can broadcast a fictitious open network, and people who are data stingy will immediately be okay connecting to it. There isn't any reservation. This is really dangerous. A hacker can retrieve passwords, steal identities, plunder bank accounts and more.

4. Personal information

Privacy isn't something that's a luxury these days, but the semblance of it is. So it would be nice to know that not everyone has access to things like our medical history to our spending habits to our search and browsing histories and more. Hackers can easily exploit bugs found on specific phone models or operating systems that can be used to steal whatever it is. From there onwards, it's identity theft, or otherwise known as the biggest headache of your life.

5. Other relational information about you

Apps, programs, websites and software typically have encryption technologies to protect the information sent and received from a device. But if it is connected to a malicious Wifi network, security measures like that can be circumvented with the help of decryption software.



If you're thinking of connecting to an insecure public WiFi, think about security measures that you can take. But if you're like me, paranoid of who's snooping around in a hipster-like cafe, I'd rather use my own.

It may seem like a crazy idea to carry Internet with you wherever you go, but in the form of a dongle, the PortaWifi is near-perfect. And the ease of mind of knowing the average ordinary hacker doesn’t have access to your computer is a bonus.

Save yourself the worry of being spied on by connecting to your very own wifi network. Now, surf at ease, bro.