Staying Safe on Public Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi is wonderful when you are travelling away from home or you work some distance away from a home or office.  However, free unsecured Wi-Fi can also be a way for someone else to gain access to your computer or your data.  There are many tricks that people can use to threaten your security.  Here are a few tips to stay safe when you are using public Wi-Fi.

1) Recognize You Are Vulnerable - Unless you absolutely must, avoid connecting to any site where you have to enter your password when you are using public Wi-Fi.  This includes email, online banking, and social networking sites (probably the majority of the sites that you use).  Also avoid making any purchases where you have to enter your credit card information.

2) Mark Your Network Public - The Windows Firewall has three built-in levels of security:  home, work, and public.  When you connect to a network for the first time, Windows will ask you to identify it as one of these three.  Be sure to select "Public" for unsecured Wi-Fi.  This will activate a stricter set of rules for allowed connections.

3) Verify the Network Name - For a long time, a restaurant that I frequented because of its free Wi-Fi had a very strange name for its network.  (I can't remember exactly what it was, but it had nothing to do with the restaurant's name.)  But what would happen if someone set up nearby with a network that contained that restaurant's name?  Most people would probably connect to that network thinking it was the restaurant's Wi-Fi network, but all their data would now be going through someone else's hands on its way to the web.

To avoid using a malicious Wi-Fi network, be sure to double-check the network name with a server at a restaurant or a front desk clerk at a hotel before you connect.

4) Connect Securely - HTTPS Everywhere is a free add-on for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera that forces sites to use a secure connection whenever it is available.  Most major websites have support for secure connections on the entire site, but only use secure connections by default when entering personal information.  This utility will force sites to connect securely if they are designed to do so.  However, understand that it cannot force a site to connect securely if it the site owner has not enabled a secure connection.

If you must connect to a site where you have to enter a password or other information, at a minimum, be sure the address begins with "https://", indicating a secure connection.

5) Use a VPN - A Virtual Private Network (VPN) sends all data in an encrypted format to the VPN provider, who then forwards the traffic to the internet.  Returning traffic is sent to the VPN provider, who encrypts it before forwarding it back to your computer.  Using a VPN makes it much more difficult for an intruder to gain access to your data.  SecurityKISS offers a free VPN with a 300MB/day cap (this should be more than enough for checking email a few times from a hotel or coffee shop).  If you think you will use more data per day, you can purchase a one month plan at a low cost.

If you must give personal information over public Wi-Fi, a VPN is a much safer option than a secure connection.  Plus, since you now have a free option for a VPN, there is no reason not to use one!