originally posted on www.stopthinksocial.com on November 20th 2010

I tend to write posts for people who are either new or recent converts to the world of the Internet and I usually try to put myself into the shoes of such a person and think about content that they might find useful.

In this blog post I want to talk about Free Unsecured Public WiFi Internet access, focusing on how to protect yourself when using it.

A few weeks ago a story broke about something called Firesheep, which is an extension for Firefox (one of the Internet’s most popular web browsers).  A person using Firesheep, on Free Unsecured Public WiFi, will be able to access the accounts of multiple popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, belonging to any other user who is also using the same Free Unsecured Public WiFi.

Tomorrow, whilst sitting in your local coffee shop using that Free Unsecured Public WiFi Internet access it generously provides, someone else could potentially be on your Facebook account at the same time as you, pretending to be you, making alterations to your profile, and interacting with your friends.

The ability to access people’s details over Free Unsecured Public WiFi is nothing new.  Experienced hackers have been doing this for years.  The reason that this has had so much coverage lately is the fact that Firesheep makes it so easy to access other people’s accounts and that almost anyone can do it regardless of their technical capabilities.

So what is the bottom line in terms of preventing yourself falling victim to someone using Firesheep?  Here are my 5 top tips:

1. There is a counter for Firesheep called Blacksheep.  While not preventing someone from accessing your accounts, it will send you an alert letting you know that there are bad guys around.
   
   
2. I would recommend that you check out something called a Virtual Private Network (VPN).  Most businesses will have VPN installed on their employees machines by default, so that they can securely access the company network while outside the office.  If your employer does not provide this, or if you are using a personal laptop, you should set yourself up with a personal VPN.  Two options that have been personally recommended to me are BlackVPN and Witopia 
   
   
3. Most smart phones today (iPhone, Android etc…) can be turned into a secure WiFi hotspot, which you can connect your laptop to.
   
   
4. In most high street mobile operators you can now purchase a 3G card which plugs into your laptop and gives you Internet access anywhere you can get a phone signal.
   
   
5. If you don’t feel technically capable of implementing any of the above options, perhaps a friend or relative with the right level of technical knowledge can help you.  If this is not possible, my advice is that you don’t ever use Free Unsecured WiFi ! Don’t take a chance with the security of your accounts.

If you were not aware of this issue, then I hope that this post has caught your attention.  By putting into action any of the above suggestions your content, accounts and your identity have a far greater chance of remaining safe and secure.  If you are familiar with this problem and have any other suggestions, please share them with us via the comments.