Wi-Fi Is A Risk For Data Leaks
Using a wi-fi sniffer from Errata Security, anyone can see what you are doing while you are using that unsecured wireless network at the coffee shop or airport.
Are you at risk? What about at home? Should you make sure your home wi-fi is encrypted to protect yourself. The article isn’t really clear. It has one good piece of advice:
“In general, experts advise against using wireless networks to connect to sensitive Web sites such as online banking. However, it is risky to use any online service that requires a password.â€
The truth of the matter is: wi-fi IS vulnerable. We all are vulnerable. Think of it this way: at any time, a person could walk into a gas station, buy a five gallon container of gasoline and a lighter and use them to set your house on fire. The technology is available, but people never really worry that someone is going to set their homes on fire unless there is an arson on the loose.
Articles like these are more about paranoia than reality. Every day we are at risk in a thousand different ways. We could spend our days worrying about all the ways that someone could harm us. Are there hackers out there? Yeah. How can we protect ourselves?
Use a password protection on your home wi-fi connection.
Use encryption on your home wi-fi connection.
Don’t access sensitive websites at public wi-fi spots.
Right now, that’s about it. As wi-fi gains in popularity, more security will be built-in, but right now, we ARE at risk. Just be careful out there and be on the lookout for people with canisters of gasoline and lighters.