Keeping yourself safe whilst using public WiFi
Public WiFi connections are extremely handy when you're out and about and you need to look up pertinent pieces of information, such as individual train times or the location of specific buildings on a local map. Though highly beneficial, however, when using a public WiFi connection, you can inadvertently put your personal data at risk. Within this article, we provide tips to help you stay safe when using WiFi hotspots.
Public WiFi safety tips
The details
Firstly, before using a public WiFi connection, make sure that your antivirus software is up to date and active .This will help protect your laptop or tablet form a number of external threats. As well as using antivirus software, you should also make sure that you have turned off your file sharing settings. To do this, click on your laptop or tablet's Control panel and select Network. To the left of your screen you should see the Change advanced sharing settings option. Click on this option and turn off file and printer sharing.
To add a further layer of protection, you could also consider setting up a virtual private network (VPN.) VPN software encrypts your personal information, making it harder for a third party to read and subsequently steal. There are a number of VPN services available online. Some of the best are:
To protect yourself when using a public WiFi connection, you should also make sure that the sites you're browsing on are secure: check to make sure that the website or page you're on has a tiny padlock, (and the letters https,) in the address bar.
Further resources
