With so many folks working remotely nowadays, we are often questioned about the safety and security of Wi-Fi networks. Should one be worried when conducting sensitive business over Wi-Fi?
As always, the answer is “it depends.” There are many possible types of Wi-Fi connections; some are very safe, others less so. Let’s take a look at the most common methods used today.
Safe: Your own Wi-Fi connection at home or office — with the caveat (there’s always caveats) that this statement is made assuming your Wi-Fi infrastructure has been set up properly. Most consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers today have simple setup instructions to ensure security. If you followed the instructions for the “quick” or “easy” setup, you should be fine.
Safe: Using your mobile phone as a hot spot. While there are reports of hacking of digital mobile phone connections, such incidents are few and far between. Of course, this hits your data plan. Generally speaking, speeds using mobile phone hot spots are relatively good. But some data plans get throttled after a certain amount of use, so check your fine print. Anecdotally, some of the major carriers seem to have difficulty tracking the amount of data used, to the customer’s favor. For example, using 1 gigabyte of data via mobile hot spot but only being charged for much less.
Unsafe: Public Wi-Fi, such as coffee shops, hotels, stores and the like. Any “open” Wi-Fi connection anywhere. Even the Wi-Fi at your friend’s house and the like should be considered unsafe. For the most part, avoid passing any kind of sensitive info over such a network. This goes for financial information, any sensitive business information and certainly no personal data. This is the safest practice on public networks.
But again, there are caveats here. After all, eliminate the data mentioned above and it doesn’t leave much room to be productive. So sometimes we have to take a slight risk. The use of “https” helps to mitigate danger. A url beginning with “https,” instead of “http,” indicates that a website is more secure. Most browsers also display a little lock to the left of the url. “Https” ensures that data is encrypted from the time it leaves your computer until it gets to its destination.
“Https” isn’t a be-all, end-all solution. The most common “hack” of “https” is a fake site meant to look like the real thing. Sure, your data will be encrypted, but it ends up at the wrong place. So be extra careful to make sure you’re hitting the right site.
But still, relying upon “https” to keep you safe on public Wi-Fi is playing with fire, and should only be used sparingly. If you find yourself needing to rely upon public Wi-Fi regularly to work on sensitive issues, consider a VPN. We’ve written about VPNs here before, but, in short, a VPN encrypts data from the time it leaves your computer until it reaches a secure intermediate site. So you’re safe over basically any kind of network, including public Wi-Fi.
John Agsalud is an information technology expert with more than 25 years of IT experience in Hawaii and around the world. He can be reached at jagsalud@live.com.
