How do hackers grab your personal data out of thin air? Agent Peterson said one of the most common types of attack is this: a bogus but legitimate-looking Wi-Fi network with a strong signal is strategically set up in a known hot spot…and the hacker waits for nearby laptops to connect to it. At that point, your computer—and all your sensitive information, including user ID, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.—basically belongs to the hacker. The intruder can mine your computer for valuable data, direct you to phony webpages that look like ones you frequent, and record your every keystroke.

Businesses that offer free or ad-hoc Wi-Fi often don’t know their networks have been breached. Individual victims usually don’t realize they’ve been targeted either until it’s too late. That’s why, according to Agent Peterson, there aren’t reliable stats on the number of these breaches, although the FBI does periodically receive reports on them. It’s also very tough to trace a hack that originates on an open, unsecure network.

What can you do to protect yourself? Agent’s Peterson’s best advice is, don’t connect to an unknown Wi-Fi network. But if you have to, there are some precautions you can take to decrease the threat:

• Make sure your laptop security is up to date, with current versions of your operating system, web browser, firewalls, and antivirus and anti-spyware software.
• Don’t conduct financial transactions or use applications like e-mail and instant messaging.
• Change the default setting on your laptop so you have to manually select the Wi-Fi network you’re connecting to.
• Turn off your laptop’s Wi-Fi capabilities when you’re not using them.

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Tags: data