There’s a Popular Chinese App That Steals WiFi Passwords

There’s an answer to all of your annoying Wi-Fi issues.

The Wi-Fi Skeleton Key is an app in China for quickly connecting to wifi hotspots without a password or sign-in – and it’s becoming pretty huge.

As in, it’s raised $52 million USD in series A funding and the company is now valued at $1 billion USD.

Not surprisingly, it’s become one of the most popular apps in the country.

The app allows all 270 million of the active monthly users to establish a connection to millions of hotspots across China without the need for credentials. With the app, all ChinaNet hotspots (8 million of them) are available to Wi-Fi Skeleton Key users.

The hotspots are run by China Mobile, the world’s largest telecoms operator.

The app also crowdsources login credentials – meaning, when one user logs into a hotspot, their credentials are added to the database so that everyone else on the app can also use that hotspot. To protect user data, users can’t actually view these credentials.

The problem with the wifi situation in most of China’s major cities is that they’re either password protected, or let you connect and then require further input – aka, personal information or a username and password that you don’t have. Not making it easy for Wi-Fi seekers, even at Starbucks, you need to input your phone number and receive a PIN through a text message before you can log on and start surfing.

Accessing so-called “public” wifi spots is therefore a whole ordeal in itself – not to mention the potential security threats.

And that’s exactly why the app – available on Android, iOS, PC, and Mac – is so popular.

So…when’s it coming to Canada?

#NOTABLE

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