It's scary that a new attack on wifi (Called Krack) has been found that may work on just about any wifi device. It's an attack on the protocol rather than any particular implementation and we don't have a more secure alternative available. It may be possible to fix it with a software update, but rolling that out everywhere is a big job.
The good news:
- The attacker needs to be in range of the device. They could still attack thousands in a city without travelling far.
- Encrypted traffic, e.g. https web sites, cannot be tapped into. Non-web email traffic is likely to not be encrypted.
No security system is perfect and it's taken a long time for this one to be cracked. We have to rely on the good guys to give us a fix. When I started using computers they were all connected with a cable. I didn't have wifi at home until a lot later. Now we depend on it, especially with phones, tablets and all our other connected gadgets. They all ought to be using encrypted links, so maybe that will encourage more to do so.
Don't have nightmares.
Update: Security guru Bruce Schneier chips in
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