When you’re at the railway station or motorway service station, and need to check a few emails while you grab a coffee.
When you’re away at a conference and need to get some work done back at the hotel bar in the evening.
When you’re working at a coffee shop for a change of the four walls of working from home.
These are all times when you may end up connecting to public WiFi networks.
And when you’re using public WiFi you need to make sure that you do so securely.
Did you know that there are technologies that allow you to see the wireless communications that are taking place within range of your own device? This is a great technology for cybercriminals to use – it enables them to see what you’re doing on your device, including passwords you’re using for websites etc.
How to stay safe on public WiFi networks
- Check that websites you access have the letters HTTPS at the beginning of the URL. The “S” indicates encryption that means these websites are more secure.
- Use a VPN (virtual private network) if your organisation has one. This keeps your wireless communications encrypted and separate from other public traffic.
- Use your phone technology for 3G or 4G cellular network access, rather than using WiFi.
- Avoid accessing particularly sensitive information in public places if at all possible.
- Turn WiFi off on your device when not in use.
- Change the settings on your device so that don’t automatically connect to WiFi networks when they find them.
- Use 2 factor authentication, so that, if someone does find out your passwords, they still won’t be able to access your accounts.
- Keep your operating system up-to-date.
- Use anti-virus on your machine, and keep that up-to-date too.
For more information on keeping safe while you work online, have a look at our website.