0

I recently was outside looking for public wifi because my android mobile internet wasn't very good. I went past a garage that had free wifi apparently, so I went up there and connected to their wifi.

However, despite being somewhat close to the garage, the wifi signal was still poor. I looked and saw a few dozen meters away some apartments and I realised that I could be connecting to some unknown wifi in the apartments,run by someone bad. I then quickly disconnected and left.

The good thing was that I was only on the wifi network for about 10-15 seconds and I didn't visit any websites where they could look at my data. Also the signal was really really weak. Though I looked online and found this:

Once a victim connects to the rogue Wi-Fi hotspot, the host hacker can then intercept data and even use tools to inject malware into the connected devices.

https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-wifi-why-hackers-love-public-wifi.html

So I feel a bit uncomfortable. My phone also acted a little strange, saying it had 15% battery still and then suddenly 1% and switching off. Then when i plug it back in to recharge, it suddenly says it has 40% battery.

Just to clarify, I didnt visit any websites on that wifi. But i'm worried maybe it was a bad wifi which was able to infect my phone and access it remotely?

Improve this question
1
  • 3
    Is it possible? Sure... Is it likely, no. You are probably more likely to get bitten by a shark while being struck by lightning, then to be hacked in this situation.
    – acejavelin
    Mar 20, 2018 at 4:09

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Is it possible? Sure... Is it likely, no.

Let us consider the scenarios where your phone could be hacked.

  1. Your phone does not have the latest security updates released by google, the network you are connected is rouge, the hacker knows how to exploit the vulnerability on your phone.
  2. You have an app installed that is malware infected, the network you are connected is rouge, hacker's network is registered with the malware infected app. He would then exploit the app to hack your phone.
  3. Network you are connected is rouge, the hacker knows vulnerability related to android OS or a popular android app(that is installed on your phone and) that is not yet fixed by google/your phone maker (for your android phone) or the developer of the app(in case of the vulnerable app).

As you can see, there are multiple parameters/conditions involved here, I believe it would be a rare case where your phone is hacked. To answer your question, as @acejavelin commented,

Is it possible? Sure... Is it likely, no.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .