Take a conscious risk

The most important thing to understand first: anyone surfing on someone else's WLAN with a smartphone or laptop usually knows nothing about the operator and the security precautions for this network. So caution is always advised here. You should only take this risk consciously. This means: Always switch off automatic dial-up to Wi-Fi networks in the settings of your smartphone and laptop.

Check names

Fraudsters often copy the network names of trustworthy providers, such as Telekom. Always ask stores, hotels or restaurants what the exact name of their Wi-Fi network is. Warning: unencrypted However, if you are surfing on a public network, this is usually unencrypted. In plain language, this means that theoretically anyone else who is also connected can see which websites you are currently accessing via a specific program.

Check the input field

To prevent this from happening, you should make sure that you only access encrypted websites. You can tell whether a page is encrypted by the "s" in "https://" in the browser input field. No sensitive data It is important that you do not disseminate any sensitive data via these public networks. This means: Do not log in to your bank or your e-mail inbox - this data could be intercepted by third parties.

If you do want to log into a public WLAN with personal access, you should set up Internet access via a VPN (Virtual Private Network) (e.g. the free "SurfEasy" app). With this method, you can surf the web anonymously and are much better protected against attacks on your data.