Don’t Connect to a Public Wi-Fi Network Anywhere You Wouldn’t Go Barefoot

[Commentary] Coffee shops, parks—bring your device to any public place and see what networks are out there. Your phone is constantly calling out, looking for any Wi-Fi networks it has connected to in the past, and any networks that it might want to connect to in the future. (Your smartphone is definitely in an open relationship with your home network.) Some of these Wi-Fi networks have names you want to trust: OHare Airport Official Wi-Fi, for example. Some definitely scream “stay away”—like GetOffMyLAN. Some are bizarrely complex—Purchase4478_Open3’—and some are thoroughly bland—Netgear00. But what do you really know about any of them?

Using a VPN is an easy step to take—much like wearing shoes—and can go a long way towards protecting your cyber health.

[Jamie Winterton is the Director, Strategy with ASU's Global Security Initiative, where she specializes in creating novel solutions for multifaceted and disparate problem spaces that relate to global security.]