Last Update: June 18, 2019
While SafeGadget has several tutorials geared towards using Wi-Fi securely, we still realize that this is a major problem area. On our recent trip, we encountered insecure Wi-Fi at several airports, hotels, and restaurants. This tutorial is designed to help all users utilize Wi-Fi safely and securely.
Free Wi-Fi is available in many locations, from airports, hotels, local café, Starbucks to McDonald’s and many other restaurants. Using these mostly unsecured, public wireless networks puts your information at risk. It is important to employ several safeguards when surfing at a public hotspot. If you are using a cybercafe’s shared computer, we would only use it to view information, not to even get your e-mail. Chance are high that it is compromised.
Many public wireless networks are completely unencrypted so that users can log on to them easily. Anytime you login to a free Wi-Fi hotspot that does not require a password, assume that a hacker can ease drop and see all information that is being sent and received.
Some Wi-Fi hotspots from vendors like AT&T and Comcast require you to log in with your username and password before you can get access. You need to understand that this is just access restriction and will not create a secure wireless connection.
This opens up a huge security hole as any hacker or sophisticated computer user could easily see all the sensitive data being transmitted. Passwords to online stores or email accounts can be easily captured by increasingly easy to use tools. In this article, we will help you access public wireless networks safely. Settings within your operating system may need to be optimized, additional software installed, and third party services may need to be subscribed to.
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