Question

As a field representative for your company, you are accustomed to traveling and working from hotels on the road. You always stay in a hotel with free WiFi so that you work and check your email, as well as Skype with your family.

What are the risks of using a public WiFi?

Short of finding a more secure network, what could you do to use this wireless network in a more secure fashion?

What options do you have if you are traveling for personal reasons and not as an employee?

Make sure you collect this information in a single Microsoft Document

Answer 1

The Risks of Public WiFi

WiFi users are at risk from hackers, but fortunately there are safeguards against them. The recent explosion of free, public WiFi has been an enormous boon for working professionals. Since these free access points are available at restaurants, hotels, airports, bookstores, and even random retail outlets, you are rarely more than a short trip away from access to your network, and your work. This freedom comes at a price, though, and few truly understand the public WiFi risks associated with these connections. Learning how to protect yourself will ensure your important business data remains safe.

The same features that make free WiFi hotspots desirable for consumers make them desirable for hackers; namely, that it requires no authentication to establish a network connection. This creates an amazing opportunity for the hacker to get unfettered access to unsecured devices on the same network.

The biggest threat to free WiFi security is the ability for the hacker to position himself between you and the connection point. So instead of talking directly with the hotspot, you're sending your information to the hacker, who then relays it on.

While working in this setup, the hacker has access to every piece of information you're sending out on the Internet: important emails, credit card information and even security credentials to your business network. Once the hacker has that information, he can — at his leisure — access your systems as if he were you.

Hackers can also use an unsecured WiFi connection to distribute malware. If you allow file-sharing across a network, the hacker can easily plant infected software on your computer. Some ingenious hackers have even managed to hack the connection point itself, causing a pop-up window to appear during the connection process offering an upgrade to a piece of popular software. Clicking the window installs the malware.

As mobile WiFi becomes increasingly common, you can expect Internet security issues and public WiFi risks to grow over time. But this doesn't mean you have to stay away from free WiFi and tether yourself to a desk again. The vast majority of hackers are simply going after easy targets, and taking a few precautions should keep your information safe.

1. Change the name of your home wireless network

The first thing you should do to is to change the name of your Wi-Fi network, also known as the SSID (Service Set Identifier).

While giving your Wi-Fi a somewhat provocative name such as “Can’t hack this” may backfire at times, other names such as “this is not a wifi” or “too fly for a wifi” are perfectly acceptable.

Changing your Wi-Fi’s name makes it harder for malicious hackers to know what type of router you have. If a cybercriminal knows the manufacturer of your router, they will know what vulnerabilities that model has and then exploit them.

But don’t name your home network something like “Andrew’s Wi-Fi”. You don’t want them to know at first glance which wireless network is yours when there are 3-4 other neighboring Wi-Fi’s. Also, disclosing too much personal information on a wireless network name may expose you to an identity theft operation.

This simple guide shows you how to change the name of your wireless network.

2. Choose a strong and unique password for your wireless network

Your wireless router comes pre-set with a default password. But it’s fairly easy for hackers to guess it, especially if they know the manufacturer.

A good wireless password should be at least 20 characters long and include numbers, letters and various symbols.

Use this guide to set up a strong password for your network. Friends coming over for a visit may complain about the unusual length of your password, but this might discourage them from needlessly consuming your data with boring Facebook or Instagram posts.

3. Improve your Wi-Fi security by enabling network encryption

Wireless networks come with multiple encryption languages, such as WEP, WPA or WPA2. WEP was first developed in the 1990’s, so it’s ancient by modern standards and easy to crack. WPA was more of a stopgap measure between WEP and WPA2, the encryption language still in use today.

But even WPA2 has multiple variants of its own. One is TKIP, but it’s a pretty old encryption method first developed with WPA, so it’s not very secure. The other is AES, short for Advanced Encryption Standard, and is an encryption system used by governments around the world, including the USA.

So the best encryption settings to increase your Wi-fi protection is WPA2 AES.

Fortunately, WPA2 AES is also a standard security system now, so all wireless networks are compatible with it.

The steps you should follow to change set up WPA2 AES varies across router models, but this is how you can do it for TP-LINK routers.

Read more about Wi-Fi encryption languages here.

4. Disable the wireless network when you’re not at home

We recommend you do this in case of prolonged absences, such as vacations. It closes any windows of opportunity malicious hackers might attempt to use while you are away.

5. Where are you placing the router in the house?

You wouldn’t think about this at first, but where you place your Wi-Fi also has a bearing on your security.

Place the wireless router as close as possible to the middle of your house. The first benefit is that all the rooms in your house have the same access to the Internet. The second benefit is that you don’t want to have your wireless signal range reach too much outside your house, where it can be easily intercepted by cybercriminals.

For this reason, don’t place your wireless router next to a window, since there’s nothing to obstruct the signal going outside your house.

6. A strong network administrator password will boost your Wi-Fi security

To set up your wireless router, you usually need to access an online platform or web page, where you can make modifications to your network settings.

Most Wi-fi routers come with default credentials such as “admin” and “password” which are easy for a malicious hacker to break into.

While changing the Wi-Fi password and name are good security measures of their own, go one step further and change the name of the network admin and the associated password. You’ll make it that much harder for cybercriminals to launch a Wi-Fi attack!

7. Disable Remote Access

Most routers allow you to access their interface only from a connected device. However, some of them allow access even from remote systems.

Once you disable remote access, cybercriminals won’t be able access to your router’s private settings from a device not connected to your wireless network.

To make this change, access the web interface and search for “Remote access” or “Remote Administration“.

8. Keep your router’s software up-to-date

Software is an important part of your wireless network security. The wireless router’s firmware, like any other software, contains flaws which can become major vulnerabilities and be ruthlessly exploited by hackers, as this unfortunate family would find out.

Unfortunately, many wireless routers don’t come with the option to autoupdate their software, so you have to go through the hassle of doing manual updates.

And even those Wi-Fi networks that can autoupdate sometimes require you to switch on this setting.

Yeah, we’ll be the first to admit that updates can sometimes be a chore. But unpatched software functions as an open invitation for cybercriminals who know how to exploit those unpatched vulnerabilities.

9. A firewall can help secure your Wi-fi network

Firewalls aren’t just software programs used on your PC. They also come in the hardware variety.

A hardware firewall does pretty much the same thing as a software one, but its biggest advantage is the addition of one extra layer of security.

The good thing about hardware firewalls, is that most of the best wireless routers come preinstalled with one. This page  can help you figure out if your router has a firewall built in and how you can activate it.

Even if your router doesn’t have one , you can install a good firewall device to your router in order to protect your system from malicious hacking attempts against your wireless network.

10. Protect the devices that connect most frequently to your wireless network

Don’t leave any exposed vulnerabilities for online criminals to pick on!

Even though you secured your router and wireless network, you need to make sure you don’t have any security holes that can be exploited by IT criminals.

Remember to always update to the most recent software available and apply the latest security patches to ensure no security hole is left open to online predators.

Even more, check which devices connect most often to your home network and make sure they have antivirus and antispyware security software installed

And finally, make sure to protect your devices using multiple security layers consisting of specialized security software such as updated antivirus programs and traffic filtering software.

I am an engineer in research and development at a medium sized international company. When I was hired 8 years ago, I spent most of my time in the lab. As our department was downsized over the last several years, I have been required to spend more and more time in the field implementing new developments (locations all over the world). I was not asked about whether I wanted this transition or not. Trips have averaged about 1 week every 2 months. There are only four engineers in my group and most of them travel as much or more than me.

Here is my problem: I hate to travel. Actually “hate” is probably not the right world. I absolutely dread traveling and almost have a panic attack every time I have to get on that plane, can’t sleep for a week leading up to the trip, etc., but I have been able to control it when traveling at this frequency. Recently I was assigned to a project that will be installed in China. I did not ask for that assignment and was not asked if I wanted to accept that assignment. This means in a few months, I am anticipating at least one 3-week trip to China. Although it has not been discussed, I think that I would likely have to go on many more trips to China over the next year for at least that long. I cannot do that!

I don’t know how to explain this to my manager without making it appear to be a threat of quitting. I just cannot do this and if this is what is required I will have to quit for my own sanity. Please do not tell me I am being irrational. I am a scientist. I know I am irrational, but I just cannot change the way I feel. How can I have this discussion, or should I just look for another job and quit? I like the other parts of my job very well and have gotten good reviews every year.

You need to talk to your manager. Lots of people don’t travel for lots of reason — kids at home, other family commitments, dislike of it, etc. It’s why, if a job involves significant travel, employers generally talk about it as part of the interview process. In your case, your job changed but the travel hasn’t been discussed … probably because they’re assuming that you’ll bring it up if it’s an issue. If you don’t bring it up, they’ll assume you’re fine with it. So you need to raise this.

It’s up to you whether or not you want to explain that you have panic and anxiety issues related to travel. If you’d rather not get into that, you can always say that you have family commitments that make it impossible for you to continue traveling. If your boss is insistent that you must do it anyway, then you have to decide what you want to do with that information. If you really don’t want the job if it involves the travel, then you proceed accordingly.

But it’s so not at that point yet, because your boss doesn’t even know. Talk to her and explain you can’t travel. That’s your starting point.