Most, if not all, NBN or ADSL internet connections in our home or at work come with wireless (wifi) built in. For the most part when encryption is turned on this is quite secure. But most of us who are accustomed to using wifi do not think twice about it when using a public wifi spot.

When travelling or sitting in a coffee shop somewhere, free public wifi is usually a welcome site. Find the wifi network, connect and just like that you are on Facebook, doing internet banking and checking your emails. We don’t even think twice about it.

But using a Public Wifi Hostspot is often nowhere near as secure as the one you are using at home, and this is where a lot of criminals will target and a lot of unsuspecting people become victims.

Why are Public Wifi Spots so Insecure’

Firewalls on wireless networks are usually very good from protecting you from the outside world (over the Internet). But most do not protect you from people on the inside of that network, over the WLAN (Wireless LAN), people like you connected to the wireless router.

With the use of some freely downloadable software from the internet, other users on the wireless network can easily see what you are doing, intercept your network traffic and steal your usernames, passwords and data!

So what can I do to stay secure

Its not all doom and gloom. Yes, public wifi hotspots are seriously insecure, taking a few simple steps and greatly increase your security.

Buy a VPN

VPN stands for virtual private network and they are cheap, easy to use systems which create a secret network, within your current sessions (public wifi) that no one can see.

There are plenty of VPN solutions out there, free and paid for, but i would not recommend a free one. The paid for VPN.s are still very cheap and work really well and you only pay about $5/month (no contract).

You basically install their software on your computer and when you want to go all private, you simply click on the start button and no one else on the public wifi can see what you are doing.

Turn of Shares 

You might not realise it, but through different programs you have used on your computer, you may have unknowingly turned on shares on your computer.

By simply going to your web browser and typing “//127.0.0.1” you can see what directories and files your computer is sharing over the network. It might be OK to share files at home with trusted people and computers on your network, but in public if your shares are on, strangers can connect to those files and steal the information inside of it.

Try the TOR network

A little like a VPN the TOR network is a way of running your computers connection through multiple other connections of people suing the TOR network like you. Your can download the TOR browser from The TOR Project and you pretty much fire it up and use it like a normal browser.