As we learned earlier in the chapter, access points aren't always what they seem to be. It is easy for an attacker to create a rogue access point identical to the real one. We will discuss some dangers of using public Wi-Fi. One of the biggest dangers of using pubic Wi-Fi is lack of awareness. Most users of public Wi-Fi aren't even aware of the existence of evil twins. Many people use public Wi-Fi to conduct banking transactions, purchase items from an online store, and login to e-mail accounts. These actions can lead to personal information being stolen. Most users will never know if they have ever been logged into a rogue access point. Many public Wi-Fi users are also not aware that a virus can be hidden in the buttons on the fake landing page. By clicking Accept terms on the landing page, a victim could be giving remote access control of their device to a hacker. By not using public Wi-Fi to transmit personal information, users can prevent the theft of their data.

Another danger to of using public Wi-Fi is the lack of encryption used to secure network traffic. Unlike virtual private networks (VPNs), public Wi-Fi hotspots often do not use any type of encryption. By not encrypting network traffic, hackers can steal data and quickly use it because the data not need to be decrypted. Many cyber security experts suggest using a VPN instead of public Wi-Fi for this reason. As mentioned earlier, hackers can use landing pages to deliver viruses. Many companies feel that adding a landing page for authentication is a good security measure to take.

Unfortunately, as we learned, hackers can easily clone the real landing page and redirect users to the fake one when they login to the evil twin. The landing page for public wireless access points does not offer added security. Instead, it offers an additional attack vector for hackers to use for payload delivery. As a cyber security professional, it is important to remember this when auditing wireless networks for vulnerabilities. Next, we will discuss various methods that can be used to detect evil twins on a wireless network.