SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Hackers invading your computer and stealing your personal information have a new tool; a phony WIFI network can be a potential trap.
Stacy Nielsen spends a good chunk of time working on her computer and most of the time she uses the free WIFI at her local McDonald's.
Nielsen said, "I come here because I can drink a cheap latte and the kids can play while I'm working on my business."
But during her most recent visit an unwanted guest took over.
Nielsen said, "It was last week, I was just working on my blog and I started noticing some little glitches."
It happened again a few days later.
Nielsen said, "When i tried to connect to McDonald's free WIFI I noticed there were differences in the home pages. There wasn't the McDonald's logo."
Someone had created a WIFI network, looking to be McDonald's, but it wasn't.
The hacker finally left, but there was the possibility he could access anything Stacy could be doing.
The Attorney Generals office sees problems like this far too often and while hacking into someone's computer is illegal it is hard to prosecute.
Kirk Torgensen, Chief Deputy Attorney Generals Office, explained, "It's tough. In order to prosecute the person, we need to know who they are and how they are taping into this."
So the best solution: if you are on a public WIFI, don't do anything, you wouldn't want someone to see.
Torgensen said, "If you are not sure, you simply do not look at anything that pulls up any personal information."
