How secure are public networks?

Have you ever wondered? I bet you've connected to a public network already but have you realized what danger are you facing by that? Let's find out. Read on to see what a hacker can do with your phone while you're "safely" connected to a public network.

First off, let's say you connect to a public network with unsecured ports, no firewall, VPN, browsing through HTTP websites. Let's see what I can do.

1. I can easily hack your accounts using my phone and MITM-ARP spoofing attacks, steal your cookies, passwords, see what pictures are you viewing. I can redirect you to other website, change images or inject any javascript to website you're currently on. All of this can be done with apps like dSploit, zANTI and others. Pretty crazy, uh?

2. There's more. If I have a laptop or a PC, I can use the msf metasploit and play with your device a little. I can push a malicious APK onto your device with a preinstalled keylogger or any virus that will attack your device. Using Kali Linux, we can create an APK with remote shell. Then it can be pushed over to your device where you'll install it.

3. While the hacker is inside of a victim's phone, he can basically do whatever he wants with it. Using meterpreter command webcam_list and webcam_snap, he'll retrieve the photos of you from the front camera.

Here's a quick list of what can hacker do while you're connected to a public unsecured network:

Steal your passwords, personal informations
View your IP&MAC Adress
Inject a script to your website
Redirect you to another website
Change images on the website
Intercept download
Push a harmful APK to your phone
Access the shell
Take your photos, intercept webcameras
Many more!

Now you're probably shocked and asking "how can I secure myself enough when connected to public networks?" The answer is pretty easy.

Use the SSL and HTTPS protocol. Most websites like Facebook or Twitter have it already but be sure you have it all the time while you're ON because the hacker can redirect you using SSLStrip.
Use VPN or Proxy servers. For complete security, install Orbot from Tor project. If you're rooted and have transparent proxying enabled, you're good to go. Download Orbot
Turn off file sharing and enable Firewall.
On Android, use WiFi Protector, this will notice you everytime there's an attacker on your network. If you're rooted, you can protect yourself from the attack.
The MITM (Man-in-the-middle) attacks works by redirecting all the traffic through a "man in the middle", making all the traffic slower. If your net speed suddenly gets slower or even stops, there might be a hacker.