Free Wifi is scary!

The internet is such a part of our lives these days that it almost seems like a right not a privilege. 

Because of that we might be forgiven to consider it separate from our normal realisation that nothing is really FREE, that there is a price there, however hidden.

And with 'FREE WIFI' that price is your security.

I should clarify here: I am specifically talking about unprotected wireless networks. You know, ones where you don't type in a password. They are surprisingly common and very popular to use as they don't force you to buy a drink in order to ask the publican/barista/waitress for the WiFi password.

Let's get technical.

The password you enter may seem like it's just protecting the owner of the shop from people stealing their internet connection (which it does do) but it is also protecting you!

The password exchange between you and the router is a confirmation that you have permission to use the network, and also initiates the sequence of encryption that keeps your requests and responses back and forth private.

On an unsecured WiFi connection the authentication is missed out, and so is the encryption. This means that everything that you send or receive, whether emails, requests for webpages, images, social network passwords, bank details, are all unencrypted and open for anyone in the vicinity to collect and use.

Questions you might ask

Surely there is some special equipment required to steal my data?
Nope. With a normal laptop and freely available software you can easily capture traffic on an 'open WiFi network'.

It's OK, the signal is so weak you can't connect anywhere beyond these three coffee tables inside.
Well aside from the concern that the little old lady on the table next to you might be a secret hacker...
High powered WiFi antennas are available for very little money (under £25) and can extend the range at which you can connect to a network, from the door of the café to several doors down the road.
Ultra high powered directional antennae, although rather pricey, can extend your range for a hundred metres or more!
You honestly would have no idea if someone was collecting your data.
Scary.

OK, I'm suitably scared what can I do? Do I have to stop using free WiFi?

No, you don't need to stop using free Wifi! Hooray! You just need to be a little bit sensible about the way you use it...
For example: you may wish to only connect to Wifi in order to access certain things - emergencies, or when you have no other choice (like using mobile data on your smartphone, or checking things another time). The longer you stay connected to the open Wifi the higher the chance of your data being captured.

But even if you do still want to connect there are things you can do to stay safe.

Staying safe:

The easy option - HTTPS

Now what I said earlier about open Wifi not encrypting your traffic is true, however sometimes that doesn't matter so much.

The webpages you view, emails you send and so on are all transferred to and from the internet using some protocols, or sets of instructions. In the case of standard webpages these are known as the HyperText Transfer Protocol. You can see this in action when your browser's address bar says http:// in front of the www bit.

There is an alternative called HyperText Transfer Protocol over SSL. Now SSL is a means of encryption, so this means that whenever your browser has a https:// bit then you are having all of your information encrypted between the website and your browser. So even if you are on an open Wifi connection you are still safe!

Some people would argue that all of the important sites like internet banking, many email sites, and a lot of online shops use HTTPS, so they can use open Wifi safely.

While this may be true for some people you do have to be careful of the sites you are using that either don't (yet) use HTTPS, or that haven't used it correctly - which sometimes results in messages popping up saying things along the lines of: "This page contains a mixture of secure and insecure content, would you like to only display the secure content?"

If you are sure that all of your internet traffic will be over properly-implemented HTTPS, or is information you are happy for anyone to have, then feel free to use this approach.

The techie solution - VPNs

This one is a little bit of a stretch for many people. Either because it involves installing some software, or setting something up, or because it may involve paying a little bit for your protection.
But with that said, this is an excellent option that will keep you safe and free to do what you like online with no fear of anyone stealing your inforrmation.

A VPN - or Virtual Private Network - is exactly that: it is a 'virtual, not physical, connection to another computer, which uses encryption, so keeps your information private.

A VPN in this context (there are plenty of other contexts as they are fabulous beasties) can best be described as a private tunnel through with all of your internet traffic passes, so that anyone snooping around near you can't see it.
Instead of your internet page request being sent 'in the clear' to the router, then passed to the webpage, the router receives an encrypted request to connect your computer or smartphone to another computer somewhere outside of the Wifi network, which will then act as the router for you.

There are a number of ways to implement this, but the most common two are:

• Setting your home computer as a VPN server, so that when you connect all your traffic gets sent encrypted to your house and then uses your home internet connection to access webpages
• Using a paid-for VPN tunnelling service to connect to an always-on server and access the internet through that.

I will go into more detail about setting up a home VPN, and choosing good paid-for solutions in upcoming VPN blog posts, but for now I can say that my wife and I are subscribed to a paid-for service and no longer need to worry about our Wifi security while out and about.

I hope this has been helpful.
Please feel free to leave comments below if you have any queries, thoughts or suggestions.