Don’t trust free Wi-Fi

Free wireless is a godsend when your mobile has run out of data. When you are on vacation you may want to Skype or hangout on Google, if you do, 3G is not as good an option as using your hotel’s Wi-Fi. My advice is not to trust the Wi-Fi blindly but take steps to protect yourself.

The reasons that free Wi-Fi can be dangerous are:

• it may not be configured correctly
• it may be a fake or a honeypot Wi-Fi at a train station for example (a honeypot is a trap, where they pretend to be a trusted wireless source solely to gather and steal your details)
• there may be adverts served by your hotel which helps to pay for it but which could contain viruses without the hotel’s knowledge
• or it could just be someone has found a way to get around security and are using the wifi to listen to what people are doing on it.

There are services, which allow you to ‘tunnel’ from your device to a website. While you are in the tunnel no one can see what you are doing. These are called VPN services. There are free as well as non-free versions available. If you are worried about security these can be very useful.

Use 3G on your phones when possible or apps that encrypt what you are sending and receiving information online.