Vacationers warned to be wary of public Wi-Fi networks
If you’re heading anywhere on vacation, make sure if you want to use Wi-Fi in public that you know exactly who it is that set it up.
Imagine you’re in an airport and you get a sudden urge to whip out your laptop to check your email. You quickly scan for an available Wi-Fi network, you locate one with a strong signal strength that’s open, and off you go on your merry way into your inbox. What you don’t know is that some hacker sitting somewhere else in the airport is watching your every move.
According to Fox News, a wireless security firm name AirTight Networks sent out a team in 2008 to 27 airports around the world to see what Wi-Fi security was like in those locations. What they found was disturbing on multiple levels of computer and personal safety.. They claimed to have found unsecured networks in everything from baggage handling to ticketing, customers using peer-to-peer connections off of other people’s computers and Wi-Fi hotspots set up by hackers looking to phish for people’s information.
Since the study was released, American Airlines and JetBlue have both publicly stated that both companies have upgraded security on the networks offered to passengers. The Marriott hotel chain, while not included in the study, has also said that its security has been revised.
While it is certainly always a good idea to be cautious when using any unknown Wi-Fi provider, you have to aso ask yourself how in the world these hackers are setting up in supposedly secure airports. Are they buying tickets each day to get through the security check points, and then set up at a table at Starbucks? Is it employees of retailers located in the airport? That seems unlikely also as they have to go through security each day to go to their jobs. Yes, be cautious in your choice of Wi-Fi provider when in public, but I’m personally more concerned about my physical safety if hackers are somehow setting up this equipment in an airport and no one notices it!
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