Travel Guidelines

A Wi-Fi connection is probably one of the most useful services that technology has given to us! The Wi-Fi is a short name given for wireless LAN (WLAN) and allows people to avail the internet service at any point of time (within the reach of Wi-Fi network). Many public spaces such as airports and railway stations offer Wi-Fi connections to people so that they can log onto the Internet form their laptops or iPhone.  However, using a Wi-Fi service at the airports may actually cost you heavily!

Let me tell you that many hackers set up fake Wi-Fi connections at the airport. Now, when you search for a network connection, there are loads of chances that you will see a network connection labeled as “Free Wi-Fi”. Most of the people will log onto such a connection, but actually they have logged onto an “ad-hoc” network, or a peer-to-peer connection. Now, you will certainly get to surf the internet but you are doing so through the hacker’s computer- and here the hacker, will get a chance to steal prestigious information like password, bank account number, credit card number and various other important data!

You are simply at the mercy of the hacker because he/she may choose to launch a ’spyware’ into your system- which will open up your laptop to the free entry of various other hackers- and your machine will simply be used as a “zombie slave”. It means that your personal or valuable information can be sent to any body! Moreover, when you re-connect your laptop machine to the corporate network at the office (or any other place), then all other computers in the network will get infected- which means that it will lead to your loss as well as the loss of other people!

However, you can protect yourself from this disaster by taking some precautions. Firstly, you should never ever connect to an ad-hoc network, even if you think that its’ genuine! Remember that the hacker can change the name of his connection to sound as if it’s real or legitimate! Secondly, you need to ensure that your computer is programmed in a manner that it automatically rejects or does not connect to the non-preferred networks. Thirdly, you should always turn-off file sharing to stop hackers from stealing any file or encrypted date from your computer! Another thing which you can do is to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for your business. It is a secure network and can never get you connected to any ad-hoc or non-secure networks!

So, you can see that a simple carelessness can cost you millions! So, beware and never attempt to use the free Wi-Fi network at the airports or any other public spaces!