Every BoomerMale computer, mobile phone, and tablet has precarious safety on the road and now we know that even our hotel room WiFi is not safe from hackers.
Security researchers at Cylance, a cyber security firm, released news that a common hotel router has been hacked and exposes your computer to outside hackers and the possibility of losing all you data. Certain InnGate routers, used by hotels because they manage communications across the hotel properties and tie in with the hotel POS setup, are completely open to attacks that make the hotel vulnerable and the information in your devices open to steal.
The problem a few years back was that few websites used https, the secure form of browser pages that protected the data traveling across the WiFi connections. This was solved when the big ISPs and websites upgraded to fully enforced https connections. Later we learned about Firesheep, an easy-to-use browser Firefox browser extension that showed any nearby WiFi user machines and exposed their login passwords. Now our devices are open to attack in our rooms.
But there is a safe solution: VPN
You should now be using a VPN for all your wireless connections outside your office or home. Many corporations use VPN and have built-in the protocols to your company devices, but that still leaves your personal tablets and phones open to hacking. Fortunately, you can purchase VPN service from a number of vendors at fairly inexpensive rates and protect your data from loss or exposure.
During business travel in the 90’s and early 2000’s, I used VPN to connect to my employer’s network from a number of countries, some of whom may have been interested in eavesdropping on my electronic conversations or accessing data on my computer. Current technology advancements have reduced the issues that slowed VPN connections so that a computer or mobile device today operates pretty much as normal without major lags.
How to find a VPN
There are many VPN services offered, but what you really want is a service that protects all your devices. Your smartphone is really a computer that runs a phone app, and it is just as vulnerable to hacking as your laptop. The same thing goes for your tablet or iPad, it is easily hacked on a public network unless you protect the data.
Both Lifehacker and PC Magazine have good roundups for VPN services. You can expect to pay between $7-$20 per month, but there are free services from some providers that cover a need for the occasional traveler. But the free services often come with ads and rarely have a complete set of features, such as the ability to connect through the VPN to a number of different countries and operate as a citizen of that country; this is usually only a problem if you want to make an online purchase or watch restricted online TV programs.
So, what would I look for in VPN services?
- Have a single account cover my multiple devices (many do, but you can often use only one device at a time, fine with me).
- If the VPN disconnects, then the browser should close and all network connection be halted.
- The ability to enter the VPN tunnel in my current local area, but surface in a number of other countries (this is so I can watch the Olympics, football, etc. uninterrupted across any borders).
What is your favorite VPN service and why? Let us know in the comments section. Also feel free to ask questions about VPN services.
