CHRISdotTODD

Forbes reports on recent work that has identified many airport hotspots not being secure. This is a good reminder to all of us who use hotspots that we need extra security. First, if you can get on the hotspot, so can anyone else. With a little work and help from programs such as Cane and Abel, anyone can intercept everything you send and receive. Other people may just set up their laptop to look like a hotspot, so when you connect, you are actually connecting to their laptop. Again programs are readily available to make this work with relative ease. Your job, if you're going to use hotspots, is to only communicate with VPN on. VPN will encrypt data as it is sent and received between your laptop and the VPN server. If your company does not provide you with VPN or you need it for private use, try services such as PublicVPN or HotSpotVPN . For a small fee, these services will protect you . The same rule also applies to any public network that you physically connect to such as from ...

I started my research on this blog entry thinking I was going to give you an easy, free solution to make sure you are secure when surfing from an un-secure Internet connection. First let's discuss the problem we're trying to solve. Whenever you connect to the Internet over a network that others have access to, you open yourself up for others to track and intercept your habits and data. This is called a "man-in-the-middle" attack. Take for example a free wireless hotspot. You and anyone else can get on this network ( Is your home wireless network secure? ). With an easy to find program, another user on the network can pose as the host, and all your data will pass right through their computer for easy intercept. Another very common place for this to occur is in hotels. Even though you may have a wired connection, again anyone else on the network can potentially fool your computer into being the host and intercept your data. Of course this is never known to the poor indi...

In speaking with an old friend today, I was reminded of how unsafe it can be to use an unprotected wireless connection, or even worse, an Internet cafe' PC. So when I got home, I researched some of the services and solutions that I have read and heard about. First of all, you should always take caution when using an open network. This includes both wireless and wired (such as a hotel). The best way to do this is by setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) before doing anything else. If you are a business person, you may already have that capability through your company. If so, check with your IT department to find out what happens when you connect to non-work addresses. Typically it will skip the VPN and go directly to the site, saving company bandwidth, but putting you at risk. Note that there may be a way to change this setting. Assuming you cannot get protected through your company network (or you do not want to), there are a couple other options. One option is to set up a VP...