Mobile and Wireless Computing World

As many busi­nesses from cof­fee­houses to hotels and air­ports now offer free pub­lic Inter­net con­nec­tions, or Wi-Fi hotspots.

But how safe is it to go online at hotspot?

Hack­ers set up fake hotspots

Did you know you’re actu­ally con­nect­ing into a com­puter net­work with strangers? And a hacker can get at per­sonal inform­a­tion that you provide, or even trick you into con­nect­ing to a fake hotspot.

Con­sumer Reports sug­gest that before log­ging on to pub­lic Wi-Fi, be sure to con­firm the name of the wire­less net­work connection.

Look for “https” in address bar

To be safe, don’t send per­sonal inform­a­tion like a credit-card num­ber or bank account login pass­word unless you see the let­ters “https” in the address bar and not simply “http.” The “s” means the data leav­ing your com­puter is sent securely.

But your best pro­tec­tion when you’re con­nec­ted to a pub­lic hot­spot is just not to send any per­sonal inform­a­tion at all.

Another import­ant step to take to keep your inform­a­tion secure at pub­lic hot­spots. You should dis­able your laptop’s file and printer shar­ing fea­tures. This will pre­vent people on the wire­less net­work from gain­ing access to your per­sonal doc­u­ments. Check your computer’s Help menu to find out how to do this.

The Bot­tom Line

Con­fused by file shar­ing? The simplest thing is to use free Wi-Fi hot­spots for basic web surf­ing only.

Leave the bank account login to your home com­puter, so you stay safe and don’t waste your money.