| Wireless technology in recent years has made it | | | | prowlers. |
| possible for people to take their work on the | | | | Some ways you can protect your laptop in a |
| road, logging on and surfing the internet, engaging | | | | hotspot include: |
| in IM chats, checking email, and even trading | | | | |
| stocks online while in transit. Coffee shops with | | | | 1. Don't connect to networks that you do not |
| Wi-Fi have become magnets for laptop-bearing | | | | trust. |
| customers, who are able to have their coffee | | | | 2. Disable your laptop's wireless adapter when |
| while reading the news, updating their blogs, or | | | | you're not using it. |
| finishing some last-minute homework. Seattle | | | | 3. Use a wireless Virtual Private Network (VPN) to |
| itself, ahead of San Francisco and New York, is | | | | encrypt your information, or it could very easily |
| third on the Forbes list of America's Most Wired | | | | be seen by others. |
| Cities, which factors the percentage of Internet | | | | 4. Use an encrypted USB flash drive. |
| users with high-speed access, the range of | | | | 5. Use email software that includes encryption |
| service providers within a city, and the availability | | | | features. |
| of public wireless hotspots. | | | | 6. Install a firewall and turn off file sharing options. |
| While the capability to connect to a wireless | | | | 7. Disable the Wi-Fi ad-hoc mode, which allows |
| internet is an undeniable convenience and has | | | | you to connect to another PC, so that no one |
| allowed countless urbanites the opportunity to | | | | can connect to yours. |
| traverse the internet at will, driver flaws in the | | | | 8. Use common sense. Don't leave your laptop |
| software responsible for running | | | | alone in a public place and make sure strangers |
| wireless-networking hardware could leave a laptop | | | | aren't peeking at your screen or keyboard as you |
| using Wi-Fi vulnerable to attackers. The attacker | | | | type. |
| would have to be within range of the network, | | | | Using your machine in public means treating it as if |
| but given the opportunity, it is very possible for | | | | the world were watching--which, if you're not |
| an attacker within the same Wi-Fi hotspot to | | | | protected, may just be the case. Don't feel you |
| break into your computer and gain control over it. | | | | have to give up those afternoons in the |
| Add to that the fact that hotspots are open | | | | coffeehouse altogether, just be aware of the |
| networks that don't use encryption, and it's nearly | | | | precautions you need to take in a wireless |
| an open invitation for hackers and electronic | | | | environment to keep prying eyes off your laptop. |