Wifi Security Concerns: How To Be Safe When Using A Public WiFi

We are living in an age where we can access data from various locations by using mobile or other handheld devices.

Smartphones and laptops can access various Wi-Fi networks at home, office, airports, hotels and other public places. The ability to access information through public wifi hot spots will save your money and time as well.

At the same time access of information from public or private places through wireless networks also pose the risk of unauthorized entry of others into your network and your data will be at risk.

Let us find ways and means to access data safely through Wi-Fi connections.

Wi-Fi hot spots are hackers’ hot spots too

There is a possibility of avhacker luring you to connect into a network by posing as a Wi-Fi spot. You should not fall into such kind of trap. The information that you send through wireless mode might be sniffed by using various software tools.

By taking the necessary precautions, you can easily manage safe data transfer through wireless hot spots.

It is not prudent to connect to one of the hundreds of thousands of active Wi-Fi networks available in the world by setting the connection parameter of your laptop or smartphone to automatic mode.

You should check technology adopted by the network security system. Wi-Fi Protected Access Version 2 (WPA 2) is the latest network security system which will also connect at a fast pace. WPA 2 will not work on old networking cards.

WPA 2 requires the testing and certification by Wi-Fi Alliance, industry association which implements the elements of wireless standards. WPA 2 has eliminated all the serious drawbacks associated with earlier WPA.

Use secured website mode

You should not share your private and sensitive information on websites that are not using encrypted technology. You can find whether a website is secured or not by noticing https at the beginning instead of http.

It is common that https sites will employ a minimum of 256 bit encrypted technology for data transfer through their sites. As the data is encrypted, it is not possible to encode the data even if someone is able to access the data you send across the wireless network.

Banking and shopping sites adopt secured technologies on their sites. You can also observe the same on Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook and other websites.

Wi-Fi with VPN secures your data

For frequent travelers it is advisable to install Virtual Private Network (VPN) in the device. The advantage with VPN is that the data will be tunneled through a separate channel which will adopt an encrypted technology.

All the data that goes and comes through the device will be kept safe through VPN filtration.

It is ideal for businesses to go for a monthly or annual plans offered by various VPN service providers. A suitable plan can be subscribed depending on the volume of data you access through the device like iPad, iPhone, smartphone, laptop, etc.

Some companies are offering customized service as per various business needs.

Private Tunnel is one such feature which is based on open source, OpenVPN technologies.

You can also activate firewall on your computer. Firewall will restrict unauthorized access to data and resources present in the computer.

Going for cellular connection by avoiding Wi-Fi connection altogether is another option. You can go for an unlimited data plan that can be accessed through your smartphone.