The Kozhikode City police force is advising smartphone users to limit their utilization of freely accessible Wi-Fi services in public areas such as shopping centers, airports, hotels etc., in order to avert data theft.

This guidance is being circulated widely over social media platforms due to the findings of various cybercrime investigative units which have determined that hackers are primarily stealing personal and banking information from phones connected to unsecured Wi-Fi connections.

The cybercrime unit suggests that users should avoid performing financial transactions over such open networks. They further cautioned that even though many of these networks require separate usernames and passwords, the use of such a network is still risky as hackers can easily acquire these login details.

The police officers stressed that there's a risk of exposing smartphone users' contact lists, personal documents, photographs, and passwords when using an open network. The ill-intentioned individuals could then misuse the stolen data, including phone numbers and photos, for blackmail purposes, they said.

While the police are taking steps to identify unprotected Wi-Fi networks in public spaces, it has not yet yielded results. The proliferation of easily accessible Wi-Fi hotspots using mobile data is commonplace in many areas nowadays, encouraging smartphone users to avail of the free, high-speed browsing these networks offer.

An IT expert working with the Kerala Police Cyberdome remarked that automatic connection to such insecure Wi-Fi networks is also a possibility, leading to potential data breaches, often unbeknownst to the user. He recommended using mobile data or personally controlled Wi-Fi for conducting banking transactions as the most secure option.

Station House officer at the Kozhikode Cyber police station, Dinesh Koroth, emphasized that the unsecured Wi-Fi networks on the beaches were being used to steal sensitive data. He added that the primary goal of such network creators is to steal photos and personal documents from individual phones.