The coffee shop in Denver had their wifi on a sticky note behind the counter

I was in Denver last week grabbing a latte at this little spot near downtown and I noticed the barista had a sticky note taped right next to the register with the wifi password. It was something like 'password123' which is already bad enough, but then I looked closer and the whole network name was 'ShopFreeWifi' with no encryption at all. While I was waiting I saw like three people connect to it and one guy was literally checking his bank app on his phone. I get that it's a small business and they don't want to make it complicated for customers but idk, that feels like an open invitation for anyone nearby to snag some data. Has anyone else noticed how many cafes just leave their network wide open like that without a guest portal or something basic?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryang771d ago

Did you see that article about people using those open networks to steal info?

andrewt4119h ago

Saw something similar happen at a coffee shop last week actually. Some guy was just sitting there with his laptop open on the free wifi, didn't even think about it. My buddy who works in IT told me these public networks are basically a goldmine for thieves if you aren't careful.