In today’s mobile working world, you can carry out your office tasks from anywhere. Almost every café, airport and mode of transport – such as trains or buses – has public Wi-Fi. This means you can conveniently reply to your emails whilst waiting for your flight to take off. Or you can start some research whilst sitting comfortably in a restaurant. Various shops and even supermarkets in this country are also equipped with public Wi-Fi. But as practical as these set-ups are, they are also dangerous. The main dangers of public Wi-Fi are hackers who can gain access to your sensitive data via unencrypted connections. In the following article, you’ll find out how best to protect yourself against these threats without having to forego the luxury of a flexible workspace provided by public Wi-Fi.
Encrypted networks do not necessarily offer reliable protection
If you log into an unencrypted network, it’s quite clear that security suffers as a result. Outsiders can easily intrude on your privacy in such cases. Very few restaurants provide a network password, as they find it too cumbersome to give it to every guest and to have to act as the point of contact for any problems. It is easier to set a blank password, thereby giving everyone the simple option of logging in. However, even an encrypted Wi-Fi network offers no guarantee of adequate protection. This is because it only protects your network access from outsiders. Everyone else on the same Wi-Fi network as you could still access your data. Even if you only use public Wi-Fi to browse other websites, it’s possible that, for example, your emails might be downloaded in the background, meaning you could unwittingly become a target for attacks on your privacy.
Public Wi-Fi – Protection against the risks of public Wi-Fi
No measure can offer you 100 per cent protection against hackers. Nevertheless, there are options that make it more difficult for criminals to access your personal data via public Wi-Fi:
- Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- Disable automatic file and folder sharing
- Disabling the Wi-Fi interface on your device altogether
- Disable automatic login to public networks
Think of the first measure as a secure tunnel through which you access your files and data. This prevents outsiders from intercepting them and using them for their own purposes. Disabling file and folder sharing ensures that your device is not visible to others and therefore presents no vulnerability. The same applies to permanently disabling the Wi-Fi interface on your mobile device. A switched-off Wi-Fi connection is the best protection against the risks posed by public Wi-Fi. This also prevents Wi-Fi tracking, i.e. tracking via logging into networks. For this reason, automatic login to public networks should also be disabled. This also prevents your laptop or smartphone from automatically logging into a network with a similar name, which has been set up not by a friendly café owner but by a hacker.
If you do not need a large office but do not always want to work from home, office space rental solutions are a good option. The COLLECTION Business Centres are located in many major cities and provide you with exclusively equipped meeting and office spaces. You can spend time in your rented office as and when required and carry out your work via a securely encrypted Wi-Fi connection. Alternatively, you can use the address as a prestigious postal address, whilst our secretarial service takes care of all other administrative tasks for you.
Cover image: © Shutterstock/cunaplus
