Behind the Splash Screen: How Hotel WiFi Logins Became a Security Risk
Captive portals, the sign-in pages travellers click through on hotel and public WiFi, are increasingly doubling as ad channels and potential attack surfaces, according to The Next Web.
Thabo Nkosi
Southern Africa Editor · Johannesburg
For business travellers moving between conferences and meetings across Europe, the unremarkable login page that appears when connecting to hotel WiFi has quietly evolved into something more complicated. According to a report by Vasyl Ivanov for The Next Web, the so-called captive portal — the splash screen asking for a room number, surname and acceptance of terms — is no longer just a gatekeeper. It has become both a possible security vector and a hidden advertising channel.
What a captive portal actually does
A captive portal is the intermediary page that intercepts a user's connection before granting access to the wider internet. It is familiar to anyone who has signed into WiFi at a hotel, airport or café: open the laptop, select the network, and a branded screen appears requesting basic details and consent to terms of service.
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