Public or free Wi-Fi may not be secure. Criminals may set up Wi-Fi hotspots to deliberately capture information being transmitted. Avoid using public Wi-Fi for transmitting confidential or financial information. Bear in mind that even if you take care with your browsing and e-mail, apps may be communicating with the Internet and unwittingly transmitting credentials in an insecure form. A VPN (as described above) is the only secure way of using public Wi-Fi.
Survivors with Wi-Fi at home should consider changing the password and ensure it complies with WPA2-PSK security standards (encryption). A perpetrator with access to the same Wi-Fi network can intercept transmissions of any device using the network. To reduce this vulnerability, always use websites with a URL starting ‘https://’. This means that communication between the device and the website is encrypted and cannot be viewed if intercepted.
Consider removing (or forgetting) any Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections that may be associated with the perpetrator to prevent any unexpected connections.