Blog / Windows 10 Wifi Sense

To better illustrate the impact of Wifi Sense we can use the following example.   ABC Corporation is an accounting firm with 25 computer users and 3 servers.   ABC Corporation has a single wireless network that allows users in the office to connect to the secure network wirelessly throughout the office.  This wireless network is also used to connect employee personal devices such as phones, laptops, and tablets.  The password to this wireless network is closely held among staff in order to protect security.  An employee brings a personal laptop using Windows 10 into work for use on her lunch break and connects it to ABC’s Wifi network.  Her personal laptop is linked to her personal Facebook account and was setup to use the Windows recommended default settings with Wifi Sense turned on.  Upon connecting her computer to the network her computer shares the Wifi password with all of her Facebook friends.  This means that any “friend” on her Facebook account now has access to the secure network when they are in range; it could expose confidential files stored on ABC Corporation’s servers.

Wifi Sense can have a significant impact on business network security.  It is possible to prevent Windows 10 from picking up your wireless network using Wifi Sense.  The easiest way to ensure a network is not shared over Wifi Sense is to append the name of a wireless network with the tag “_optout” (For Example “Wifinetwork_optout”).  The other solution is to employ wireless network security based on the 802.1X standard (a protocol normally reserved for very large wireless networks).

We encourage all business owners and managers to take the necessary steps to educate their staff about this new feature and secure their network with the help of a trusted IT professional.