Ask Elizabeth
by Elizabeth Blair York | June 15th, 2007Q. Seriously, is it really a risk to use the free WiFi at the coffee shop? Is anyone REALLY spying?
A. Seriously? Yes.
I was in Raleigh-Durham working on a WiFi-enabled client site a couple of years ago when the security director leaned against my desk and asked me who ‘TigerBear83′ was.
My blood ran cold - it was my GMail password.
His employees regularly run sniffer software to make sure that employees are following security protocols and clearly, I’d failed the test.
Sniffer software is easily found (freeware versions are all over the web) and there are legions of hackers who spend hours nursing lattes and data trolling at WiFi hotspots.
Bottom line, public WiFi has no built-in protection. The security of your data is a a do-it-yourself proposition. A fact too many users are blithely unaware.
Will this change? Yes. But at this moment in WiFi’s evolution, the technology is just not there yet.
The safest option you can take to send/receive sensitive information is to get thee a patch cable and plug in. A secure, hard-wired network connection is your best port in the storm.
But before you give up coffee altogether, let me say that there are some security measure you can take to minimize risk on a public WiFi. The effectiveness of these measures is equivalent to whispering your private information versus shouting it across the movie theater.
The best up-to-date instructions I found on protecting yourself were at About.com, written by Mary Landesman. I recommend her post here.
The soundest advice I can give youon the subject - assume that anything you send & receive on an open WiFi can be seen. So never type anything on an open WiFi connection that you wouldn’t tell a stranger on a bus.
Q. I took your seminar years ago and you said if I spilled something on my keyboard and disabled it, I could run it through the dishwasher. I thought you were nuts. But now the situation’s come up and I was wondering…
A. Am I nuts? Yes. But that’s besides the point.
Over 10 years ago, I spilled Diet Coke on my keyboard and killed it dead. No knowing any better (which is usually the preface to every great discovery) I borrowed my neighbor’s dishwasher and ran it through - figuring I had nothing to lose and a keyboard to gain.
It worked. And it’s worked several times since then.
A new keyboard is cheap and easy to get these days but if you want to attempt a last life-saving procedure then run it through the dishwasher on a cool, unheated, short cycle. Make sure the keys are facing DOWN and don’t use any soap or detergent.
Afterwards, let it dry on a towel or a rack for at least 48 hours - until it is truly bone dry through and through.
Unconvinced? Well, Nell Boyce at NPR did it recently heard about this and tried it out. Read about her experiment here.
Just promise me you won’t try this on your optical mouse.
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On Fridays, MoGo Mobility’s Elizabeth will seek to answer your MoGo (and non-MoGo) technical questions.
Elizabeth is a professional writer & geek with most of the last decade spent in senior management at a leading global IT provider. Thousands have attended her seminars in the US & Canada on subjects ranging from basic TCP/IP networking to high-end data storage solutions.
Got a question? Ask Elizabeth.
Tags:advice, ask elizabeth, computer, connectivity, dishwasher, dishwasher safe, identitiy theft, internet, IT, keyboard, Mary Landesman, Mobile, nell boyce, network, NPR, passwords, piggybacking, Road Warrior, tech advice, wifi wifi security