Communications and Security: The Rogue Hotspot

Society is always on the go and wireless hotspots are popping up in nearly every busy area.  Local coffee shops, airports, busses, and even downtown free WiFi zones are being set up to satisfy society's desire to be connected to the internet.  These hotspots are usually free or require a small fee to use and are open to the public. You might think all is well, but there could be a danger lurking within these portals to cyberspace. One such danger is called a Rogue Hotspot.

Imagine you are at the airport and you want to check your e-mail before your flight departs so you connect to the local Wi-Fi zone.  This could be free or a paid service and you log on. You check your e-mail and post something on facebook while finishing your cup of coffee. Everything seems to be fine. What's really going on is that the hotspot you connected through was some person on a laptop nearby just posing to be a legitimate public Wi-Fi hotspot. While you were checking your email and poking on facebook, he/she was searching your computer for banking, credit card and other sensitive information.  If you were unfortunate enough to have given up your credit card because the hotspot had charged you to connect, the crook gets your fee and is selling your card to others. 

There are some simple steps you can do to help protect yourself from such threats. Make sure you are not set up to connect to non-preferred networks. For a PC in the advanced wireless settings under the network settings uncheck the "connect to non-preferred networks".  In a Mac go to the network pane in the System Preferences and check the "Ask to join new networks".  You can also purchase a reloadable or disposable Visa card to use in case you are charged a fee to use a hotspot. This way your credit card is not broadcasted if the transaction happens to be intercepted. It would be wise to just ask an employee what if the establishment offers Wi-Fi and what the name of it is. This article on the dangers of rogue hotspots mentions that the most common name for a fake hotspot is "Free Public Wi-Fi".  Also by avoiding any banking or online shopping while on a public Wi-Fi you prevent anyone from intercepting your personal information by simply not using it.