Coffee Shop Wi-Fi

Many of us spend time in coffee shops, like Panera or Starbucks, on our laptops using their free wireless internet connection. But, have you considered how easy it is for anyone to see every detail of what you are doing? It’s true, the average person, like you or I, can’t see other people’s internet traffic and probably don’t care to, but there are people around that intentionally want to see what you are up to.

Granted, there’s not much excitement if you are IM’ing with your wife about what she needs you to pick up from the store on the way home or if you are emailing your business partner about details of a meeting tomorrow. But, there’s a good chance that when you log into your email, your password is visible, and when you log into your bank account, your password is visible.

Read this very informative article at SecurityFocus called Coffee shop wi-fi for dummies. The biggest suggestion:

When it comes to web browsers at the coffee shop, there’s one big piece of advice you should follow: don’t use Internet Explorer!

So what should you use instead? Firefox, Opera – or Safari if you’re a Mac user. All three are free, powerful yet easy to use, and all are safer than Internet Explorer.

Read the article for details on signing in, sending and receiving secure email, as well as secure browsing and instant messaging.

This is a big deal, take it seriously because others take getting access to your private data seriously.

Be pro-active when using any public wi-fi network, I did alot in my hotel room last week on their public, unsecured wireless network. The same rules apply. Many churches have unsecure wi-fi that anyone can use, these same rules apply. If you don’t use Firefox, I would recommend doing that, at the minimum, even for being on the internet at home.

I found the link to this article via Scoble.