After analysing more than 31 million Wi-Fi hotspots around the world, Kaspersky Lab has found that every fourth (28 per cent) is unsecured and poses a risk to users' personal data.

That means all the traffic transmitted over those networks, including personal messages, passwords, documents and much more, can be easily intercepted and used by attackers.

According to Kaspersky Security Network, 25 per cent of the world’s Wi-Fi networks have no encryption or password protection of any kind.

Another 3 per cent of hotspots use WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) to encrypt data. This unreliable protocol can be "cracked" within minutes using tools that are freely available on the Internet.

The rest of the nearly three-quarters of Wi-Fi hotspots use a more reliable form of encryption based on the family of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) protocols. The effort required to hack these networks depends on the settings, including the strength of the password.

It’s worth noting that the top 20 countries with the highest percentage of non-encrypted Wi-Fi hotspots include many popular tourist destinations like Thailand, France, Israel, and the US.

Travellers are among the most vulnerable because the nearest available hotspot is often the only way for them to stay connected.

Another study pointed out that only 57 per cent of Internet users are concerned about their data being intercepted during a Wi-Fi session.

“We advise all users to remain vigilant when connecting to Wi-Fi,” Denis Legezo, antivirus expert at Kaspersky Lab, said.

“Do not use hotspots without passwords and do not use public hotspots to perform high-risk activities such as online banking, shopping or transferring confidential information. If that sort of traffic is intercepted by a third party, it could result in serious losses, including financial losses.

“And of course, we strongly recommend using additional measures to protect traffic, such as VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology.” — VNS