Business Week just published a short article called "Public Wi-Fi: Be Very Paranoid". Here’s how they showcased the story on their main page:
Give me a break.
The article is not about espionage, or the airport security staff listening in on your conversations, as the headline might lead you to think. It’s about the general lack of security in public wireless networks. Which isn’t news, last I checked.
Fear-mongering headlines like this seem to be ever more popular in today’s media. For shame. How about making the articles themselves more interesting, so that you don’t have to resort to sensationalist headlines to lure people in?
Anyway… I got suckered. I clicked through, and read the article. And I thought, "this is nonsense".
I use public Wi-Fi networks every day to read and write email, look up heaps of info on the web, and synchronize business documents. So far nobody has stolen my identity, emptied my bank account, or pilfered my ever-so-vital business files.
Yes, once in a while I do wonder, "is it safe to use this network?" But I don’t lose sleep over it, and you shouldn’t either. If the network name looks authentic and it isn’t a peer-to-peer or ad-hoc network, game on.
The reality is we’re soon going to have Internet access everywhere, for cheap or free. WiFi, WiMax, mobile phone networks, projects like WiFiDog… it’s coming. And on the current trajectory, nearly none of these public wireless gateways to the Internet will be secure.
Not secure. Just… like… the Internet.
Yes, technologists will eventually deliver and deploy better end-to-end security solutions. For instance, the online banks I use are all secured with HTTPS. And those docs I synchronize every day are pushed around by Foldershare, which encrypts everything (well, almost everything; there is a long-known bug that prevents Mac-to-Windows encryption. Get off your butts, Foldershare team!).
But don’t hold your breath waiting for airtight security. Instead, just use common sense. Be cautious when accessing confidential stuff on public networks. Use different passwords for banking, work, and email. Since you can’t remember all those different passwords, keep them somewhere secure, like Password Safe. And above all, don’t run with scissors; they’ve been known to have sharp edges!
