Just realized my coffee shop's free WiFi was a security nightmare

I was at Brewed Awakening in Austin last Friday and noticed their guest network had no password. Everyone just clicks accept and gets online. I asked the barista about it and she said they never changed the default router login either. For a place with 40 laptops open every morning, that feels like asking for trouble. People are checking bank accounts and work emails on that network. Has anyone here convinced a local business to lock down their WiFi without sounding like a paranoid nutjob?

3 comments

3 Comments

blairj552mo ago

Woah wait they never even changed the default router login? That's insane. I mean no password is one thing but having the admin panel wide open is just asking someone to mess with the whole network. Could literally change the DNS settings or redirect people to fake login pages in like 30 seconds.

holly_green822mo agoMost Upvoted

And @blairj55 my uncle had a whole crypto mining farm running off his open router for MONTHS before he noticed. Wild.

keithharris23d ago

Damn that is wild. I used to be one of those people who thought "ah it's just a router, who cares if it's open" but hearing stories like this changes my mind completely. You don't think about mining or people messing with your DNS when you leave it wide open, you just think someone might hop on to check email or whatever. But yeah, once you realize they can basically own your whole internet connection it gets scary fast. I'm definitely double checking my own setup tonight after reading this thread.