Tagged: wifi hotspots

How Hackers Protect Themselves When Using Public WiFi

Every year, thousands of hackers and security experts descend on Las Vegas for two of the world’s largest annual hacker conventions: Defcon and Black Hat. Security researchers present their latest findings and security exploits.

Keep reading to find out what types of hacking they are doing at these events and ways to protect yourself!

The Rise of the Evil Twin: How a Personal VPN Can Strike Back

We applaud Tech Republic for explaining what we’ve been educating about for years: “Public hotspots all have one thing in common; they are open networks that are vulnerable to attacks and security breaches. Most, if not all, public hotspots do not encrypt data, allowing passwords, email messages, and other information to be intercepted by nefarious types.”

Keep reading to see what else their article suggests — as well as our suggestions for avoiding evil-twin hotspots, dodging hackers, and protecting your identity.

Will WiFi Replace Cable and Fiber Networks?

In a recent blog post, we mentioned that the next generation of WiFi technology will be much faster, and that by 2018, worldwide WiFi traffic will overtake wired traffic for the first time ever.

Now see how one Silicon Valley company plans to bring high-speed WiFi networks to underdeveloped parts of the U.S. as well as developing countries.

OpenSignal’s U.S. WiFi Study Looks at Speed, But Not Network Security

OpenSignal is a small startup with a very interesting mission: they are creating a database of WiFi access points around the world and are hoping to become the global authority on wireless networks. Their website contains analysis of all of the data they have collected, including the WiFi signal strength of all access points in a given area.

How do they do it?

Should You Use ‘Free’ WiFi Networks at Sporting Events?

In this day and age this is the stadium WiFi is the new standard. Because what fun is it to be at a sporting event if you can’t post pictures on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram?

But what you are giving up in exchange for access to so-called “free” WiFi? And who has access to your data as a result of being online at sporting events?

One of NYC’s Free WiFi Providers Goes Kaput

Is New York City’s free WiFi program in trouble?

A research group known as Gotham City Research claims that Gowex, one of the five organizations that former New York City Mayor Bloomberg had chosen to provide free WiFi service in the city’s five boroughs, cooked their books and vastly overstated its earnings. Based on this report, Gowex filed for bankruptcy.

Nothing Safe about Library WiFi Networks

It’s back-to-school season, and if you like to surf the Internet while at the library (or even file your taxes), remember that nearly all library WiFi networks are completely open. This means that anything you do online at the library could potentially be seen and intercepted by another person on the same network.

Keep reading for essential tips to protect you (and your children) on any library’s WiFi network.

Wireless Safety Tips for Travelers from PRIVATE WiFi and STOP.THINK.CONNECT.: [INFOGRAPHIC]

Warning: There is an invisible safety threat that you will encounter on your next vacation. No matter where you are going or when, you will likely encounter WiFi on your journey. While the convenience of such a connection is alluring to any vacationer, understanding the dangers associated with using that wireless hotspot are paramount and it is up to you to protect yourself.

Don’t Be Evil: San Francisco Artist Spoofs Google’s Free WiFi

A San Francisco media artist named Harris David Harris has created a fake public WiFi network that looked very much like the free one that Google offers to its employees who take private shuttles to and from work in Silicon Valley. His “d0ntb33vil” project — which mimics Google’s motto — also serves as his MFA thesis project in the Digital Arts and New Media program at UC Santa Cruz.

Instead of getting Internet access, Google employees saw an image of the sidewalk in front of them.