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| » 28 May 2009 |
| How Secure Is Your Data While Traveling? |
| Wireless Local Area Networks—otherwise known as Wi-Fi or WLAN—are available to on-the-go mobile professionals, tourists, and travelers the world over because nearly all hotels, airports, malls, fast food restaurants, and the like have Wi-Fi support nowadays. However, with all these network hotspots becoming more and more widespread (in addition to people increasingly using their smartphones for wireless Internet access as well), are business travelers putting themselves at risk of being hacked by the criminal elements lurking behind the complex networks of the Information Superhighway? As some cyber security specialists would say, the short answer is yes. However, they do tend to append that Wi-Fi use at these areas is no more dangerous than Internet surfing at a coffee shop. Marty Linder—a senior member of the technical staff at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute CERT/Coordination Center—clarifies that Wi-Fi is a "shared medium" wherein anyone who's connected to it is open to monitoring and spying by another person who's connected to it. Linder adds that the risk associated with a shared medium or a public forum in intrinsic, so it has nothing to do with how secure the network is or whether or not you're open to being hacked by hackers. Convenience does not come without risk, and he alleges that this is "the nature of the beast." Fran Hanna, a sales representative from Chapin, South Carolina, elaborates Linder's point further by outright stating that the convenience of Wi-FI isn't worth the risk at all. She used to frequently bring her notebook computer on business trips and use the Wi-Fi connection on her hotel. However, that all changed when Wi-Fi hackers hacked into her computer and delivered inappropriate and harmful content into her account. The damages done by the attack eventually cost her $900. Aside from virtual theft, experts also warn that the actual loss of gadgets and devices also pose a serious threat for mobile professionals. The expensiveness of having your laptop lost—which includes the cost of replacement, lost intellectual property, data breach, forensics, legal assistance, detection, lost productivity, and regulatory expenses—sets a corporation back on an average of $49,246 per lost computer, says a study by the Ponemon Institute sponsored by Intel. Then again, the Ponemon study further discloses that lost notebook PCs with encryption security saved companies nearly $20,000 compared to those left vulnerable. These two common mobile computing hazards—that is, hackers stealing your data online and thieves stealing your property in real life—should serve as a lesson to business travelers. Eternal vigilance in the form of firewall protection, data encryption, and extra cautiousness towards your computer's safety are all important in safeguarding your data while traveling. |
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