We were all there: you are sitting in a coffee while trying desperately to finish a little work, but your 4G is simply painfully slow. Fortunately, this store has public Wi-Fi, but you really don’t want to enter your name and email on all your devices to connect them all by one. Fortunately, Apple apparently plans to facilitate this with iOS 19
Mark Gurman reports in his Rise Newsletter that iOS 19 could offer inter-apparels synchronization for Wi-Fi access gates. This would mean that, rather than having to fill your contact details each time on each device, the phone will allow you to connect only once and connect to Wi-Fi on the Apple devices you have on you.
In theory, it is a great saver. But it is worth being aware of some of the threats from public Wi-Fi, and why you may not want to join so quickly in order to keep your phone safe.
What is the problem with public Wi-Fi?
Regarding security, there are a few reasons to be wary of any public Wi-Fi. The first, and the most obvious, is that they are rarely encrypted. Anyone who tries to read what you send will have much easier if your data is sent in raw text. Meanwhile, your cellular connection, signifier 4G or 5G, is encrypted, and therefore much more difficult to penetrate.
The other threat to knowing is something called a “medium-sized attack”. This is where someone puts their device as a legitimate server who acts as an intermediary for your phone and the Wi-Fi network. This allows them to read or modify your data with you not being the wisest. Alternatively, sometimes they can use their device to create a new Wi-Fi hotspot with the same name as public Wi-Fi, to which you then connect all your devices, giving them full access to do as they wish.
Now, all of this can be quite intimidating, and you can wonder why you would never use public Wi-Fi. The problem is that in certain circumstances, there is really no choice, for example, if you are in an area with little or no service, or if you do not wish to pay more mobile data or use the limited allowance of your contract.
Fortunately, you can do several things to protect yourself from any potential attack if you need to use a public network. First, beware of any public Wi-Fi which has a generic name or no password. If you connect, avoid using bank applications on your phone when you connect to public Wi-Fi or make purchases on sites like Amazon. If you absolutely need it, it is best to check that you have an HTTPS connection with the site in question, because these encrypt the connection between it and your device.
However, the best thing you can do is invest in one of the best VPNs to help protect your device. VPNs help to encrypt your data while masking your IP address, which makes it more difficult for hackers to follow.
Although it is not specific to public Wi-Fi security, it is also imperative to keep your iPhone up to date, as they include security fixes to protect against newly identified threats.
What comes with iOS 19?
Although this alleged iOS 19 addition may not be for everyone and that it is one, hopefully, that we can deactivate, it is not the only change to come. We expect iOS 19 to understand a multitude of new features, as well as improvements in Apple intelligence. For example, the update could allow more applications to take advantage of the Intelligence Appie.
We also heard that Apple was planning to shake the design of its software with the update. According to rumors, the update will include New looks for icons, menus, applications, windows and even buttons found in the operating system. There are also indications that the search bar on your iPhone could migrate from the top of the screen in iOS 19. However, these rumors have been questioned by certain sources, which claim that the models are not indicative of what we will see when the update is announced.
However, we will not know much until Apple reveals the update, which will probably happen at the next WWDC, which takes place the week of June 9. If the synchronization between devices for Wi-Fi access gates appears in the context of the update, and it probably seems to consider the source, then I hope you are now ready to be as sure as possible whenever you start to use it.
