Wi-Fi Means Exposure
With all the recent reports of credit data being compromised one way or another, you must take care that you are not creating the risk of exposure yourself.
Wi-Fi advertisements are springing up like yard onions. Every coffee house, sandwich shop, hotel or major transit stop provides free Wi-Fi. While it’s convenient, being able to access your email from most any location, it also increases your risk for having your personal data stolen.
I am technology challenged in most respects, but I do understand the basics. If you are in a public forum utilizing “free” radio waves to access your personal data, be it your online banking or your email account, you are giving those unscrupulous tech savvy folks the ability to snatch your stuff “right out of thin air”, so to speak.
To protect yourself fully, don’t use Wi-Fi in public venues and disable your wireless transmitter when in public locations with Wi-Fi. To reduce your risk if you simply must check your email at Starbucks, don’t access any of your password protected accounts such as your online banking while in a public Wi-Fi location. Wait until you are on your regular hardwired network connection to check t0 see if that last check you wrote cleared.
Where personal data theft is concerned, better to wait, than provide more bait!