Business Travelers: Beware of the "Free Wi-Fi" Scams at Airports!

Waiting in between flights at the airports with nothing to do is boring. Thus it is very tempting to snap open your laptop and hook up with the "Free Wi-Fi" network you see advertised in many airports these days.

But should you? How do you know the "free" wi-fi network you are connecting to is not a dangerous scam that can cost you a lot of sleepless night?

Fraudulent wi-fi networks launch a "man in the middle" attack. You think you are hooking up with a network but actually you are connecting to a "peer-to-peer network" set up by a hacker in the vicinity.

You would usually have no idea that you are connecting to the Internet through the hacker´s machine. There would be no outward signs to alert you to the fact.

Once you connect to his or her computer, the hacker can roam at will inside your hard disk; monitor and record every key stroke and thus can steal every ID and password you use to log in to any membership, shopping or financial site; capture all your credit card and bank account information; in short, create hell for you… all without your knowledge.

What´s worse, if he or she chooses to lodge any spyware into your machine, that opens up your laptop to the free entry of all other hackers who can then use your machine as a "zombie slave." They can send spam messages from your unit to anybody they like without your knowledge or consent.

And it´s not over… If you go back to your office and re-connect your infected machine to your corporate network, all the other machines on that network can get infected with the same spyware as well. That´s another disaster you have to consider.

How to detect such dangerous peer-to-peer networks?

Open the Wireless Network Connection dialog box of your computer.

All machines (Linux, PC, Mac) do have such an information screen which provides a list of wireless networks that your machine can detect nearby. Most of the time all you need to do is double-click the respective icon in the menu bar, status bar, or service tray that represents your wireless network connections.

NOTE: Don´t forget – the hacker can give the peer-to-peer network any name he or she wants. So the fact that a network is named (for example) "Dulles Airport Official Secure Wi-fi Network" means nothing. It can still be a dangerous and unsecure network.

What matters is the description that accompanies the network´s name.

If a network, regardless of its name, has a description that reads something like "unsecure peer-to-peer network", "peer-to-peer network", "unsecure computer-to-computer network", "computer-to-computer network", "unsecured wireless network" or anything to that effect, I would certainly NOT connect. There is a high probability that it might be a trap set up by a hacker.

With such networks of unknown security status it´s better not to take the chance. Just use your best judgment and don´t assume anything.

Next time you have any doubts whatsoever about the safety of a "free wi-fi" offer, take out that humble paperback from your briefcase and discover the safe wonders between its covers.

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