Wi-Fi security when Traveling

Cybersecurity is not just securing your PC & mobile devices from the Trojans and Malware attacks; it is more about securing your networks. You need to secure every part of your network. A free and open public Wi-Fi usually brings a smile to everyone’s face, but the fact is that these open public Wi-Fi networks are highly prone to cyber-attacks, especially when you are traveling. There are several dangers of using a public Wi-Fi hotspot. In this post, we will learn about Wi-Fi security and some tips & precautions to take to securely access the Internet when traveling. These simple ways will protect your network from Wi-Fi attacks on the go.

To prevent yourself from these attacks, you first need to learn what kind of attacks your Wi-Fi network is prone to. Some of the trickiest and most harmful attacks include Sniffing, Sidejacking, and Social Engineering.

Sniffing, which is a passive attack is based on sniffer software that steals the data passing through a computer network. While the packet sniffers are designed for ethical hacking troubleshooting and data analysis, cybercriminals use it for intruding in your networking and stealing the data. Some typical sniffing attacks include- LAN sniff, protocol sniff, ARP sniff, and web password sniffing. Hackers can steal your passwords over WiFi using this technique!
Sidejacking, also known as Session Hijacking, is a kind of Wi-Fi attack where the attackers use your cookies to impersonate your account and log into any website. While the websites encrypt your login process, they never encrypt your cookies, making your account vulnerable. An open Wi-Fi network shares the session cookies through the air, which makes your network even more vulnerable and prone to attack.
Social engineering is a kind of attack where the attackers trick users into breaking their regular security systems. It is more like conning the users. The commonly used social engineering attacks include- clickbait, phishing, scareware, and pretexting.

Now when you are aware of these common Wi-Fi attacks, let’s talk about some tips & precautions to take to securely access the Internet when traveling.

Read: How to get free WiFi anywhere on a laptop or phone.

Here are some tips you should follow in the interest of WiFi security:

Keep Your WiFi Off
Use VPN
Public Charging Stations Are Not Safe
Sharing Settings
Carry An Ethernet-enabled Device
Personal Hotspot.

1] Keep Your WiFi Off

Usually, we all have a habit of keeping our WiFi open in our mobile devices, which automatically gets connected to an open public WiFi network which is not safe. Keep your WiFi off and turn it ON only when you want to use the internet. It is not recommended to use public WiFi connections unless you have something really important to do. The open WiFi connections which are not secured with a password are usually dangerous as anyone using the same WiFi can intrude and hack your device. All your login details are out in the air.

2] Use VPN

A Virtual Private Network, often termed a VPN is a kind of private tunnel of your network which secures you from unwanted intrusion. While traveling, we often use public Wi-Fi connections for our online money transactions, which can be dangerous. But if you are using a VPN, it will hide all your internet activities from the attackers. It is quite easy to set up a VPN for mobile devices, laptops, and tablets. There are several good free VPN software that you can make use of.

3] Public Charging Stations Are Not Safe

Have you heard about Juice Jacking? It is a way of stealing the entire data stored in your phone via the USB charging cable. When you use the USB port of public charging stations, you are granting the hackers to access all your data unknowingly. It is always better to have your own power bank and not to use the public charging stations for your mobile phones.

4] Sharing Settings

Before you connect to the public Wi-Fi, make sure that the sharing settings on your devices are turned off. Keeping these settings, ON leads to data theft.

5] Carry An Ethernet-enabled Device

Yes, we can’t imagine our lives without the internet but using public WiFi ain’t a good option. If you are a business traveler and necessarily need internet access on the go, it is suggested to carry your own Ethernet Port and an Ethernet-enabled device.

6] Personal Hotspot

While this is an expensive option but it is the best one indeed for business travelers, who need to be online every time. A private/personal hotspot comes in both prepaid and postpaid plans. A personal hotspot protects your online activity and encrypts all your details. All your online activities, including the money transactions, are secured.

Tips for International Travelers to protect Digital Security

When you are traveling internationally, you need to stay connected with the people in your home country and the internet is the only way out. Thus, it becomes even more important to stay careful and watchful about using the public WiFi networks and take some basic steps to secure yourself at public WiFi hotspots in order to protect your data when using unsecured wireless networks.

Keep the devices physically well protected.
Encrypt your important and critical files.
You need to use VPN software as it will encrypt all the data that your PC sends so that it will not be hackable.
Monitor your Bluetooth connection in public places to ensure others are not intercepting your transfer of data.
Using unencrypted networks is highly risky as all your details are easily hackable then.
Turn off Bluetooth when you are not using it. Hackers can pair with your phone’s open Bluetooth connection when you are not using it and steal personal information.
Also, one must avoid downloading or installing any updates on the devices when traveling internationally. This is because the hackers usually trick the users with such update notifications to intrude into your system.
Check your Location service. Do you want people to know where you are?
It’s best if you can use a cabled connection or buy an unlimited data plan for your device and stop using public Wi-Fi altogether

These were some of our tips and tricks to stay safe while accessing the internet on the go. If you have some more of such tips, we would love to hear them.

Stay secure!

Now read: Holiday travel cyber security tips that help you stay safe when on vacation.