84 percent of travelers aren’t properly protecting themselves from public WiFi threats.

The holiday season is the time of year we travel. It’s when people buckle up on planes and trains across the world, relishing the relatively recent wide-spread availability of public WiFi. (Infographic)

This year, however, it seems people have wisened up to the fact that the Starbucks WiFi isn’t the same secure and convenient connection you get at home. And that’s a good thing as 89 percent of public WiFi connections are unsecured and open to bad actors, according to research from VPN provider AnchorFree.

Indeed 84 percent of travelers aren’t properly protecting themselves from public WiFi threats because many of them don’t even realize they’re connected. This is due to the fact that people are connecting more often on their mobile devices when out of the house, many of which automatically switch to available WiFi networks for you.

Tips when traveling using public WiFi: don’t do any online shopping, online banking, and don’t connect to your e-mail unless you’re sure you trust the connection.

Check out the infographic below for more stats on connecting on-the-go this holiday season:

Photo credit: Hot Hardware

Via Venture Beat