Beware of data thieves near Wi-Fi spots

Feels great to surf the net, zip mails and download -- literally from thin air -- at Wi-Fi 'hotspots'? It must be, surely. But be warned. Someone somewhere could be snooping inside your laptop even as you blissfully trawl cyberia. Hackers using simple sniffing tools can tap into unencrypted data passing through hotspots -- data from your machine stolen from right under your nose. And as is the case with virtual thefts, you may never notice it. The reason for such a lapse in security is, as experts point out, Wi-Fi is still a technology that corporates and individuals are getting used to.

Most laptops in a normal wired atmosphere are part of a secure network, but in the case of a public hotspot -- such as at airports, coffee bars etc -- it is an open network with no one knowing who the users are.

Additionally, as V Sriram a Chennai-based security expert points out, "Most companies have not configured or educated laptop users to use it securely. Today, new laptops are Wi-Fi-enabled and there a lot of users who have bought Wi-Fi cards and Wi-Fi-enabled their systems without informing the IT team in the office. There is a gaping security hole in these cases when the laptop goes out of the office environment into a public hotspot."

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