Every body loves Free WiFi right? cause its free!, you can kill time at the airport, you can chill while your having a coffee, or you can hang out at Macca's and save your download limit. How ever there are dangers with using free WiFi, its usually public, which means it is open, or unsecured. With out going all techy on you, unsecured means you don't have to access it with a password, usually you just pick the name of the network that you wish to join and hit "connect".
Long story short, there are different levels of encryption for WiFi networks, but even the most basic level requires you to supply a password or pass-phrase to access the network. This means that any data you send over the network will be sent in an encrypted state and not in plain English. This is where the problem lays, undesirables, who most refer to as "hackers" ( hackers are far more intelligent and sophisticated) are able to sit there with a program open on their laptop and capture every bit of data you send. A program came out recently called "firesheep" which did exactly this, it had over 129 000 downloads in one day!. This program is readily available and easy to use, it can turn anybody into a WiFi snoop. The silly part is, who ever is hosting the network is able to use encryption, and just make the password the name of their business, it doesn't have to be a secret password, there just has to be a password.
Another problem that can be encountered is that a person can set up there own WiFi network or "hotspot" which you unsuspectingly join thinking it is the network provided by the venue you are at. Once you join this fake network, they may perform a man in the middle attack where they catch your data read it, then send it on, sometimes to a fraudulent site!.
How do you get around this? Luckily a lot of websites are helping by making there site https instead of http, the s meaning secure for all intense and purpose. Google has recently changed to https which is good for us all. Another way is by downloading an add-on application to force your web browser (firefox, Chrome) to use https if it is available and warn you if it is not.
Most of the time your device is configured by default to automatically join any available network, this is dangerous because your device can be infected just by "walking past" a dangerous network. So make sure this is turned off, it will also save your battery life!. You will then be asked before you join a network, always look around and see it there is a sign that displays the WiFi networks name before you join one.
One last tip, make sure any shared folders or drives on your device are turned off before you join any public networks.
Long story short, there are different levels of encryption for WiFi networks, but even the most basic level requires you to supply a password or pass-phrase to access the network. This means that any data you send over the network will be sent in an encrypted state and not in plain English. This is where the problem lays, undesirables, who most refer to as "hackers" ( hackers are far more intelligent and sophisticated) are able to sit there with a program open on their laptop and capture every bit of data you send. A program came out recently called "firesheep" which did exactly this, it had over 129 000 downloads in one day!. This program is readily available and easy to use, it can turn anybody into a WiFi snoop. The silly part is, who ever is hosting the network is able to use encryption, and just make the password the name of their business, it doesn't have to be a secret password, there just has to be a password.
Another problem that can be encountered is that a person can set up there own WiFi network or "hotspot" which you unsuspectingly join thinking it is the network provided by the venue you are at. Once you join this fake network, they may perform a man in the middle attack where they catch your data read it, then send it on, sometimes to a fraudulent site!.
How do you get around this? Luckily a lot of websites are helping by making there site https instead of http, the s meaning secure for all intense and purpose. Google has recently changed to https which is good for us all. Another way is by downloading an add-on application to force your web browser (firefox, Chrome) to use https if it is available and warn you if it is not.
Most of the time your device is configured by default to automatically join any available network, this is dangerous because your device can be infected just by "walking past" a dangerous network. So make sure this is turned off, it will also save your battery life!. You will then be asked before you join a network, always look around and see it there is a sign that displays the WiFi networks name before you join one.
One last tip, make sure any shared folders or drives on your device are turned off before you join any public networks.
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