Are You Exposing Your Private Data by Using Public Wifi in Airports?

Arriving three hours early at the airport is certainly a smart move, considering the check-in lines these days, its best to be safe than sorry. On average it would take you an hour to check-in and clear security, after that you'll have another two hours left to kill before boarding the aircraft. How you manage your two hours of idle time is up to you, though most people kill their time by using the free Wifi connection available at the airport. If you're a busy executive travelling frequently by air, you'll most likely make the most of your idle time and try to get some work done in those two hours, you will probably be sending emails, writing up reports, checking stocks etc. Regardless of who you are, it's probable that if you are travelling with your laptop, you are going to make good use of the free Wifi available in the waiting lounge. However, you may be overlooking your data's security, as public Wifi connection are a notorious hub for identity fraudsters.

Think about it, free Wifi connection doesn't require you to enter a password, meaning that Wifi connection is in essence, unsecured. Virtually anyone can connect to an unsecured network and can gain access to files located on your PC. Moreover, every time you connect to an unsecured network, you risk exposing your PC to malware and viruses. There's not much stopping professional identity thieves from stealing your credit card or social security numbers once you're connected to an unsecured network. Using sophisticated software, they are easily capable of penetrating your computer's firewall without you ever finding out about it, most of these e-criminals are able to hack into secured servers, so hacking into your computer is like taking candy from a baby.

Nowadays, wifi connections are even available in aircrafts. Taking advantage of this, crooks have come out with an ingenious way to hack into your computer. Many will generate fake Wifi connections with their laptops using Windows computer-to-computer (Ad-Hoc) network, then renaming that network something like 'AA flight 323' assuming you'll connect to it. Once you are connected, you'll be able to surf the internet thinking it's a legitimate connection, while the identity thieves can begin digging for sensitive data on your PC. With this trick, it's quite easy to fall victim to identity theft, and before you discover your identity has been stolen, there's isn't much you can do about it.

In order to protect your identity, its best to avoid using unsecured wifi connections and remove all personal documents related to your identity, such as e-statements, tax returns and drivers license numbers. If you have no choice but to save such information, and have no choice but to connect to unsecured network, then it's recommended that you encrypt such information with data security softwares which encrypts and password protects your private data. Data encryption ensures that encrypted data cannot be hacked by even the most veteran hackers, especially if data is encrypted using 256 bit-AES encryption.

Edward Robin is Marketing Manager at New Softwares.net, a data protection and Information Security company that provides data Security Softwares . Rate this Article

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Edward Robin has published 26 articles. Article submitted on October 16, 2012. Word count: 507

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