hotspot surfing

maybe you’ve seen articles about it, maybe you haven’t. there are certain things that you need to keep in mind when deciding to connect to a wireless hotspot at the airport, starbucks, or your neighbor’s ‘free’ internet.

for those not familiar with the term, a ‘hotspot’ is a place where you able to connect to the internet through a wireless service provided by someone else. many times, it is advertised in high traffic areas as ‘wireless available here’ or ‘free wireless’.

in places like san francisco, google and earthlink have teamed up to provide wireless access free to the entire city! other cities, including chicago are also considering the move.

so what is the danger?

well, surfing on a wireless hotspot is like walking around with your bag open. while in some areas it may be ok, more than likely you’re asking for something to get hijacked and stolen.

many users sheepishly laugh this threat off, but the reality is that hacking a wireless hotspot is very easy. the tools are available free, online and are accompanied by step-by-step tutorials.

so how can you protect yourself?

1. never surf at websites that you need to enter any personal information. if you’re going to carry your bag open in the mall, don’t carry anything that identifies who you are. this includes bank sites, email accounts with sensitive information, and any other sites that contain your financial information (student loans, etc.)
2. check the hotspot page you buy from. an effective tool of hackers is to place similar wireless hotspots near each other with very similar names, sometimes only differentiating by a lowercase value. always be sure that the signup page is legitimate, especially when asking for your credit card. if possible, try and pay for the service with a person at the store instead of online. it is very easy to copy a ‘buy it now’ page, with logos, terms, etc.
3. if you must purchase online via a hotspot, make sure the site has an ssl connection. this will be indicated by a ‘https://’ at the beginning of the site as well as a little lock icon in the status bar. if you need to create a username and password, make sure it doesn’t match any other accounts you have. also be sure to use a credit card that you can easily dispute charges. i like amex.
4. if your corporation has one, use their virtual peer (vpn) network to surf. a vpn is like a tunnel that shields all of your internet traffic to the outside world. a lot of corporations use vpn’s to protect their network from intruders. you’ll know if you have a vpn through your corporation if you have to sign into an application to view their internal websites. this is not the same as checking your email online.

hopefully this helps you think about the next time you connect to a hotspot. although we live and thrive in the information age, never forget that you are being watched, especially on free and open networks.