by Tom Robbins

Created on: December 13, 2007

There are so many horror stories about using wireless networks these days, it's difficult to know where to begin.

First of all, what makes wireless so much less secure than a regular network? It's simple once you know: to spy on a computer or hack into it you have to be connected to it. The closer you are, in network terms, the easier it is. Best of all is to be connected to the same cable infrastructure (for a conventional network) or within wireless range (for a WiFi network). On a conventional network it's not too easy to wire yourself in. With wireless, all computers are connected by radio, so you simply have to be within range of the transmission. For the latest wireless technology, that means you need to be within 250 meters (approx 830 feet).

Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do to make life safer and more secure. If you have a wireless access point at home, make sure you enable WEP, or better yet WPA. Both of these things encrypt all the traffic over your network using a password, and are simple to set up. WPA is far more secure than WEP, so if you have the choice go with that. If you are running a business network, you probably want to look into running AEGIS or RADIUS, both of which are strong access control protocols to help keep out unwanted visitors.

If you are using a wireless hot spot, say in your local coffe bar, at the train station, or at the airport, then you don't have any control over the network itself. All you can do is secure your computer.

The first thing to do is make sure you have a good firewall and anti-virus on your computer. Most operating systems come with a firewall, and if you're looking for a free antivirus the most popular is AVG Free Edition from Grisoft.

You can take advantage of any security your work might offer. If you use your computer for work it probably has a VPN installed. Usually when you connect to the VPN all your Internet traffic goes over the VPN, not the local network. This means that there's another layer of security between you and anyone malicious. You may want to check with someone in IT at your workplace to make sure that this is the case, but generally you can send all your Internet traffic over the VPN and not have to worry about anyone nearby. Just remember that it's going over your work's Internet connection, so don't use it to look at things you wouldn't look at from the office.

You can also try and limit the risk of what data people might see. If someone's watching what you're doing, they're not going to have anything to take advantage of if you're simply reading the news. A good rule of thumb is to act as if someone was looking over your shoulder. You probably want to be wary of downloading your email, as most email usernames and passwords do not get sent over the network encrypted. Avoid looking at things which reveal too much personal information, such as online banking.

If you really need to access something like online backing, make sure that it's an encrypted website. The easy way to tell is to look for a padlock symbol, which usually appears in the address bar on your web browser.

None of these things is guaranteed to stop a determined hacker, but just doing one or two of them will probably make it more trouble that it's worth for them to target you.

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