Are Hot Spots Safe?
Are Hot Spots Safe?Security threats and countermeasures for wireless Web users.James A. Martin Sign up to have the Mobile Computing Newsletter e-mailed to you each week. Feature: Are Hot Spots Safe? You and your notebook are at a corner café, wirelessly surfing the Internet. You buy a book from Amazon.com using your credit card and check your savings account balance at your bank’s Web site. It’s all very cool, in a new-millennium sort of way. But is it secure? Wireless networks broadcast data over radio waves, and anything transmitted over the airwaves can be intercepted. That’s why wireless networks are inherently less secure than wired networks. By definition, public wireless networks are designed to be accessed by anyone within the Wi-Fi hot spot’s broadcast range, usually up to 150 feet from an antenna. Because these wireless networks are open to all (either for free or for a fee), it’s possibl
Related Questions
- Is it true that wireless network users are themselves vulnerable to security breaches even when connected to a corporate LAN via a wireless VPN connection?
- Will new security markets emerge around Privacy, Web Servers, Applications Servers, Wireless, and Security Management?
- My entire wireless network is installed outside of enterprise firewall. Am I safe from wireless security threats?
