How to Shop Safely Online This Holiday Season-Wifi Danger

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Never shop on public Wi-Fi. A good rule of thumb to use is that if you don’t have to login with a password, then the Wi-Fi is not encrypted – meaning a hacker can snoop into your Internet browsing and steal passwords for unprotected sites. If you have to use public Wi-Fi, look into using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), that should keep you more safe. Wi-Fi hacking has become infinitely easier to accomplish in the last few years, with free tools and kits distributed over the Internet. Almost anyone can do it. Don’t be another victim.
But public Wi-Fi isn’t the only threat, the Wi-Fi you have at home is also potentially at risk. Make sure to turn on encryption and do not keep the default password. This happens more often than you would think. Also, when you’re setting up your home Wi-Fi network, try not to use your last name or address as your network name.


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If you have a DSL modem or such in your home, you might take a look in the interface of this modem to be sure that you have WiFi secured on it. Even if you are hard wired to this modem and are not wireless, quite a few modems have the WiFi turned on as default.
This allows your neighbors to use your connection without your knowledge. This could bring untold grief to you whenever your neighbor visits porn sites or solicits underage girls in chatrooms. Or maybe makes threatening remarks about governmental officials, etc.

I used to be amazed how many of my neighbors had unsecured wifi. When I first got my wireless computer and used it on the bus, I could watch the different home and business wifis as we drove by and many of them were unsecured. Now, I rarely see an unsecured home wifi -- although I bet, as CG said, many of them are using the default password of whatever router they have.

A couple of years ago I was visiting an old mentor in Dallas and he only had dial-up at his house. His next door neighbor had unsecured wifi and I used that to check my mail while I was there.

If you think having an unsecured wifi setup will probably never be detected or the signal won't reach the street, you should Google wardriving.

I have heard that wifi spots are monitored by people.. They sit in their cars with their computers to steal credit cards.

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