Wi-Fi: advice from Wired.com on how to use it safely when away from your home or office network

[wired] Wireless internet enabled laptops and devices like BlackBerries and iPhones have been true life-savers for travelers. Back before the whole wireless internet explosion, the frequent flying businessman, the leisure traveler and the vacationing mom and dad all had to be content to exist in a sort of purgatory while moving from point A to point B.

Nowadays when we’re on the road, you have very little to worry about when it comes to getting the information you need, corresponding with e-mail or instant messaging or writing up those important spreadsheets. As a nice bonus, if you’re just bored and need to entertain yourself on a ten hour flight somehow, you can just sit back and watch some YouTube videos, since a lot of airlines are now providing cheap in-flight wireless internet.

But here’s the thing; wherever you have a new way of transferring information, snoops also have a new way of stealing information and sending bad information.

So it stands to reason that this new trend of providing free wireless internet in airports and in flight is also suffering a bit of turbulence in the form of malicious hackers.

Contents
1 Hackers ARE Listening
2 Comprehensive Protection
3 Email
4 Accessing Other Web-based Services
5 User Accounts and Passwords
6 Airlines and Airports with Free Wi-Fi
7 Finding Free Wi-Fi While Out & About
8 A Primer on Wireless Security
9 Additional Tips
10 More Travel How-Tos

Secure Your Wi-Fi While Traveling