OPINION: Sandwich chain Pret A Manger became the latest venue to announce free wireless internet access this week. But while public ‘hotspots’ are growing in number, free bandwidth comes with an element of risk, warns security specialist David Hobson.Once you are associated to an access point, you are on the same network as others connected to the same access point, in the same way as plugging into the same network segment. A simple network discovery will show who else is connected – and from there an unscrupulous user could try to access your machine.This may not be deliberate. A Trojan may automatically be scanning in the background for, and trying to infect other machines. In addition to the possibility of direct attack, your data is probably going to be ‘clear text’ – i.e. not encrypted.
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How to use public Wi-Fi safely
OPINION: Sandwich chain Pret A Manger became the latest venue to announce free wireless internet access this week. But while public ‘hotspots’ are growing in number, free bandwidth comes with an element of risk, warns security specialist David Hobson.