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How do you stay secure in an open wifi network?
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This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.

Dec 27, 2013
Listen 9:28
How do you stay secure in an open wifi network?
How do you protect your data and personal information on a large and minimally-maintained wifi network? How secure are free wifi hotspot networks?
Customers use wireless devices at a coffee shop in downtown Hanoi on November 28, 2013.
Customers use wireless devices at a coffee shop in downtown Hanoi on November 28, 2013.
(
HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images
)

How do you protect your data and personal information on a large and minimally-maintained wifi network? How secure are free wifi hotspot networks?

The spread of wireless networks from our homes to coffee shops, libraries, planes, and trains has been steady and expansive.

 Free, public wifi is available in stores and on public transit. Paid wifi on airplanes offers users access without a code once they pay, and Amtrak has expanded free wifi into more and more of its trains. The Los Angeles Metro is expected to offer free wireless to passengers by 2016.  Harlem has expanded a free wifi hotspot that is now the largest in the country, and frequently free, open internet is becoming an expectation. 

But how do you protect your data and personal information on a network that large and minimally maintained? How secure are free wifi hotspot networks?

Why are they so unprotected, and how should they be managed to make them as effective and secure as possible? The U.S. trails behind advances to public wireless internet that have already been put into effect in Europe and Japan – how can we catch up and make American networks most useful and safe?

Guest:

Chester Wisniewski, Senior Security Advisor at Sophos Canada

Credits
Host, AirTalk
Host, All Things Considered, AirTalk Friday
Senior Producer, AirTalk & FilmWeek
Producer, AirTalk with Larry Mantle
Producer, AirTalk with Larry Mantle
Associate Producer, AirTalk with Larry Mantle
Apprentice News Clerk, AirTalk
Apprentice News Clerk, FilmWeek