How to Stay Safe on Public Wi-Fi

When you work or travel anywhere that isn’t your office or home, you connect to the Wi-Fi networks easily available to you. This is often the network provided by the establishment you’re visiting.

Did you verify it was a secure network?

Did you know networks weren’t always secure?

How you connect to a network is vital to cybersecurity, but we rarely think about the networks we use when we’re on-the-go!

In this brief webinar, we’ll give you some quick tips that you can use to stay safe on a public Wi-Fi network.

When we talk about “public networks”, we are referring to networks where you don’t know their security level. Some examples include:

  • Hotel Wi-Fi
  • Guest Wi-Fi
  • Your local coffee shop
  • Open networks such as #TELUS, ShawOpen, etc.

The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to not use them in the first place.

You have alternatives to a public network:

  • Your data/LTE
  • If you’re on a device, using the hotspot function of your phone

These methods have the lowest risk to your devices because you know the credentials to the network and are the only person with direct access to it. But we know this isn’t feasible all the time.

When you need to connect to a public Wi-Fi network, here are some tips to keep you safe.

  • Ask for the network information from the employee directly: don’t guess the network name because these ARE spoofed to trick you into connecting your device
  • Understand why a network is asking for information from you: hotel Wi-Fi asking for your room number is an understandable request, but a Wi-Fi network asking for your credit card? Seems a little phishy.
  • Check your connection is secure, using HTTPS and indicating with the lock icon
  • Avoid sites that contain sensitive information: don’t do your banking on a public network
  • Don’t click on popups asking you to install/download software
When you connect to a network, keep in mind that any accounts you are signed into on your device are at risk as well! That’s why we recommend unique passwords for each of your accounts.
 
If you want to know how to make better passwords that you can remember, watch our webinar replay on How to Create Secure Passwords.
 
We’ve created a simplified one-pager for you below.
Public Wi-Fi Safety One-Pager

You can download the one-pager here!

If you want your own copy of this webinar’s slide deck, feel free to download it here.

At Clearbridge Business Solutions, we’re dedicated to equipping our customers with the tools they need to be more cyber secure through managed IT services and educational resources.

We can only cover so much in a short 15-minute webinar. If you’re ready for a partner to come alongside you for all your IT strategy, IT security, and IT support needs then get in touch today!