Open Challenges for Secure and Scalable Wi-Fi Connectivity in Rural Areas
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866917382700662784 |
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| author | Astillo, Philip Virgil Berrer Sengupta, Jayasree Vanhoef, Mathy |
| author_facet | Astillo, Philip Virgil Berrer Sengupta, Jayasree Vanhoef, Mathy |
| contents | Providing reliable, affordable, and secure Internet connectivity in rural areas remains a major challenge. Pay-for-use Wi-Fi hotspots are emerging as a scalable solution to provide affordable Internet access in underserved and rural regions. Despite their growing adoption, their security properties remain largely unexplored. In this paper, we present a security analysis of these hotspot ecosystems based on Wi-Fi surveys and practical attack validation. We first perform a Wi-Fi survey conducted in two countries, namely the Philippines and India, to understand the deployment and adoption of such systems in practice. Our results suggest that Piso-WiFi pay-to-use hotspots are particularly widespread in rural regions of the Philippines, and that India's PM-WANI initiative is slowly gaining traction. We then perform a security assessment of these deployments and demonstrate two practical attacks: hijacking another user's paid connection; and rogue hotspots. We analyze the root causes of these vulnerabilities, introduce threat models tailored to pay-for-use hotspot deployments, and outline practical security improvements, including a secure caching architecture. Our findings highlight security challenges in emerging rural connectivity infrastructure and provide directions toward more secure and scalable deployments. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_02774 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Open Challenges for Secure and Scalable Wi-Fi Connectivity in Rural Areas Astillo, Philip Virgil Berrer Sengupta, Jayasree Vanhoef, Mathy Cryptography and Security Networking and Internet Architecture Providing reliable, affordable, and secure Internet connectivity in rural areas remains a major challenge. Pay-for-use Wi-Fi hotspots are emerging as a scalable solution to provide affordable Internet access in underserved and rural regions. Despite their growing adoption, their security properties remain largely unexplored. In this paper, we present a security analysis of these hotspot ecosystems based on Wi-Fi surveys and practical attack validation. We first perform a Wi-Fi survey conducted in two countries, namely the Philippines and India, to understand the deployment and adoption of such systems in practice. Our results suggest that Piso-WiFi pay-to-use hotspots are particularly widespread in rural regions of the Philippines, and that India's PM-WANI initiative is slowly gaining traction. We then perform a security assessment of these deployments and demonstrate two practical attacks: hijacking another user's paid connection; and rogue hotspots. We analyze the root causes of these vulnerabilities, introduce threat models tailored to pay-for-use hotspot deployments, and outline practical security improvements, including a secure caching architecture. Our findings highlight security challenges in emerging rural connectivity infrastructure and provide directions toward more secure and scalable deployments. |
| title | Open Challenges for Secure and Scalable Wi-Fi Connectivity in Rural Areas |
| topic | Cryptography and Security Networking and Internet Architecture |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02774 |