If you’re someone who loves finding ways to save their data when using their smart device, you likely are always on the lookout for WiFi that you can connect to. And while you can usually find some kind of WiFi when you’re out and about, using public WiFi isn’t as good of an idea as you might like it to be.
When on public WiFi, you have to be very careful so as to not open yourself up to cyber vulnerabilities. But luckily, there are things that you can do to avoid this. To help you see how this can be done, here are three security tips when using public WiFi.
Be Careful With What You Access
When you’re using your own data to access things online or are at home on your own private network, you have security in place to help protect other people from accessing your network and potentially taking advantage of it. But when you’re sharing a public WiFi network with others, these protections aren’t always in place.
Knowing this, you’ll want to be very careful with what you access when you’re on a public WiFi network. Ideally, you should avoid accessing anything relating to your personal or financial information when using these kinds of networks. While you might be okay doing basic searches that don’t require you to log into anything, accessing anything that contains information that you wouldn’t want other people to have access to should be avoided.
Only Use Secure Connections
If you’re going to be using public WiFi, you should also double check that every website that you connect to allows for a secure connection.
To know if the connection that you’re getting for a website is secure, it should have either a lock icon next to the URL or have an “s” after the “http” as part of the actual URL. With these letters and icons in place, you can rest easier knowing that the information that is being sent and received from these websites is being encrypted.
Try To Stay Off Networks That Many People Are Using
Not all public WiFi networks are going to be the same. For example, if you’re using a public WiFi network at an airport or a mall, there are likely hundreds of other people using this network. But if you’re using a public WiFi network at a small business, there are going to be far fewer people using that network.
In an ideal world, you should try to stay off public WiFi networks that a lot of other people are using. Not only can this slow down your connection, but it creates more chances for nefarious people to be using that network to try to get personal, confidential information from. So if you can manage it, try to only use public WiFi when coming from a small, reputable source.
If you’ve found yourself using public WiFi in the past, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you keep yourself safe in the future.