Another big concern is about technologies replacing people and eliminating jobs. Most schools are adopting e-learning and other forms of artificial intelligence forms of as to meet up with their academic calendars. The biggest question is: will Artificial Intelligence take away jobs, leaving hundredRead more
Another big concern is about technologies replacing people and eliminating jobs. Most schools are adopting e-learning and other forms of artificial intelligence forms of as to meet up with their academic calendars.
The biggest question is: will Artificial Intelligence take away jobs, leaving hundreds of people jobless?
Work automation is estimated to threaten about 800 million jobs worldwide – but in return, it will create even more.
The main point to keep in mind is that technology will replace tasks, but not the actual jobs. The development of technology is aimed at improving the work processes and making them more accurate, faster, and hassle-free.
While technologies can replace people, who are doing mundane jobs, they also give the opportunity to learn new skills and apply them in the new digitized environment. So, the invasion of technology can be seen as a chance to re-organize the work processes and assign human talents to more sophisticated and complex tasks.
I responded to the initial query and I happen to face the same problem as you faced. It's quite unfortunate that PeerBlock was not efficient anymore. I had to try out other solutions and the best use a proxy like BTGuard. It funnels all your BitTorrent traffic through another server, thus keeping yoRead more
I responded to the initial query and I happen to face the same problem as you faced. It’s quite unfortunate that PeerBlock was not efficient anymore.
I had to try out other solutions and the best use a proxy like BTGuard. It funnels all your BitTorrent traffic through another server, thus keeping your IP address hidden from anyone connecting to your BitTorrent swarm.
Even if you’re downloading a torrent that’s being tracked, they’ll see BTGuard’s IP, not yours, and BTGuard doesn’t keep any logs of their service, meaning they won’t trace that IP address back to you.
If you want to keep your browsing speed from being throttled, you can try enabling encryption in your BitTorrent client. If this doesn’t give you the desired result, BTGuard provides an encryption program along with its proxy service that can hide your traffic better than uTorrent and other clients, to ensure you don’t get throttled.
These options are proven and have been tested over the past few days.
First, you are creating a problem for them. They must always make conscious effort to maintain online security no matter how to insignificant their task online is. It’s bad if someone steals your password or credit card information, but a lot of people are a lot more apathetic about what they put onRead more
First, you are creating a problem for them. They must always make conscious effort to maintain online security no matter how to insignificant their task online is.
It’s bad if someone steals your password or credit card information, but a lot of people are a lot more apathetic about what they put on Facebook, their personal blog, or anywhere else.
Your data is worth protecting, though, whether you think so or not. Not only does that data give companies and governments more power to track you, but it can make it easier for someone to steal your identity, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Plus, you never know where that data may end up one day, and who might see it (potential employers, for instance).
Some stuff is more important, of course, but don’t let the little stuff slide just because you don’t think anyone will care. Somebody probably does.
Funny question Well if it's worth a consolation, It is NOT TRUE. But seriously: yes, the media companies are always on the prowl, looking for people downloading their content illegally. Your internet provider may even watch your traffic to see if you’re torrenting. The legal ramifications of doing sRead more
Funny question
Well if it’s worth a consolation, It is NOT TRUE.
But seriously: yes, the media companies are always on the prowl, looking for people downloading their content illegally.
Your internet provider may even watch your traffic to see if you’re torrenting. The legal ramifications of doing so aren’t as heavy as they used to be in previous times. With that being said, but you may still get letters from your ISP, reduced browsing speed in most cases, or any other mild punishments.
There are ways to keep yourself anonymous in such situations, of course, but its fail-proof. Applications like PeerBlock claim to block your internet provider from seeing exactly what you are downloading, but they’re not very reliable, and you can still easily get caught when using PeerBlock.
So it snow left to you to decide whether you want to download from torrent or not.
This is a very common problem with routers. Your internet gets slow, so you unplug your router, plug it back in, and all of a sudden it’s magically working again. But why does this happen, really? It could be a number of things: maybe it’s overheating, maybe it’s getting bogged down from too much trRead more
This is a very common problem with routers.
Your internet gets slow, so you unplug your router, plug it back in, and all of a sudden it’s magically working again. But why does this happen, really?
It could be a number of things:
maybe it’s overheating,
maybe it’s getting bogged down from too much traffic (like BitTorrent), or
maybe it’s just a crappy router.
One common way to ease these constant network fluctuations is to make sure you reset it once in a while and wait for 10 seconds minimum when you unplug it before you put it on again. My colleague made me realise it helps the router to reconnect to the server as a fresh connection.
You’ve no doubt heard about all the sites that have gotten compromised in the last year, but what happens when they do? Usually, those hackers are after your username and password, but whether they can get it depends on how a site stores your password, as well as your password’s strength (weak passwRead more
You’ve no doubt heard about all the sites that have gotten compromised in the last year, but what happens when they do?
Usually, those hackers are after your username and password, but whether they can get it depends on how a site stores your password, as well as your password’s strength (weak passwords are much easier to crack than you think).
After you’ve read up on those things, get started on protecting yourself with a good password manager, a different strong password for every site you use, and backup plans in case someone gets into your account anyway.
Some spam is so obvious and painful to endure! I know a friend who lost #500,000 in less than 30 mins, but other messages are more subtle. A lot of spam relies upon oh “phishing,” in which a spammer will try to make their email look like it’s coming from a legitimate source in order to get your infoRead more
Some spam is so obvious and painful to endure!
I know a friend who lost #500,000 in less than 30 mins, but other messages are more subtle. A lot of spam relies upon oh “phishing,” in which a spammer will try to make their email look like it’s coming from a legitimate source in order to get your information
[noun: phishing]
the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
They may tell you to click a link that looks like it’s going to a legit website or bank webpage, but if you take a little time to hover over the link, you’ll see that it’s really going somewhere else—likely a different disguised similar looking site where you least suspect fraud and willingly type in your information. Luckily, you can usually avoid those tricks by checking the URL and typing it in yourself instead.
Be careful, too—sometimes those links will cause you to unknowingly spam one of your friends, which only spreads the scam.
The earlier you apply caution, the safer you will be.
Hahaha!. Well. It’s because computers use something called write caching to improve performance: if you copy something to your drive, it’ll tell you it’s completed the task, but it’s actually waiting until it has a few other tasks to perform so it can do them all at once. Efficient, right? When youRead more
Hahaha!. Well.
It’s because computers use something called write caching to improve performance: if you copy something to your drive, it’ll tell you it’s completed the task, but it’s actually waiting until it has a few other tasks to perform so it can do them all at once.
Efficient, right?
When you press eject, your PC finishes anything in the queue to make sure you don’t incur any data loss. Windows do a better job of avoiding problems than OS X and Linux, but we recommend ejecting all your drives anyway.
Come to think of it, it’s a small price to pay for keeping your data safe.
Yes, you don't want to have to manually adjust all of these settings every single time you go back and forth between the coffee shop and your secure home network. There are a few ways to automate the process so you automatically get extra protection when connected to a public Wi-Fi network. On WindoRead more
Yes, you don’t want to have to manually adjust all of these settings every single time you go back and forth between the coffee shop and your secure home network.
There are a few ways to automate the process so you automatically get extra protection when connected to a public Wi-Fi network.
On Windows
When you first connect to any given network on Windows, you’ll be asked whether you’re connecting to a network at your home, work, or if it’s public. Each of these choices will flip the switch on a preset list of settings. The public setting, naturally, will give you the most security. You can customize what each of the presets entails by
opening your Control Panel and
navigating to Network and Sharing Center >
Advanced Sharing Settings.
From there, you can turn network discovery, file sharing, public folder sharing, media streaming, and other options on or off for the different profiles. That’s a good start, but if you want a bit more control.
On OS X
OS X doesn’t have these options built-in like Windows, but an app like ControlPlane can do a fair amount of customization. With it, you can turn on your firewall, turn off sharing, connect to a VPN, and a whole lot more, all depending on the network you’ve connected to. Also, Firefox extension automatically chooses the secure HTTPS option for a bunch of popular web sites, including the New York Times, Twitter, Facebook, Google Search, and others, ensuring secure HTTPS connections to any supported web site, every time you visit. You can even add your own to their XML config file.
Note that as a Firefox extension, this works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Consider a “Safety First” Approach
If you’re a real road warrior, you may find yourself adding so many profiles that automating your safe settings at every step along the way may seem like a lot of work. A better approach may be to make your more secure settings the default for your system and create just one profile for your home network. Thus, by default, file sharing would be turned off, your firewall would be at its most secure state, and so on—then, when you return home to your protected network, you can have Airport Location or NetSetMan turn your less secure settings on.
This isn’t all-encompassing by any means but should give you a good quick checklist of things you should do every time you connect to a public network.
Of course, some of us already have your own public browsing routines, so be sure to share your safe networking tips in the comments.
This step works for me, you can share what works for you as well
Public Wi-Fi networks—like those in coffee shopping malls or hotels—are not nearly as safe as you think. Even if they have a password, you're sharing a network with tons of other people, which means your data is at risk. The argument that most wireless routers have firewalls to protect you from theRead more
Public Wi-Fi networks—like those in coffee shopping malls or hotels—are not nearly as safe as you think. Even if they have a password, you’re sharing a network with tons of other people, which means your data is at risk.
The argument that most wireless routers have firewalls to protect you from the internet doesn’t mean you’re protected from others connected to the same network. It’s remarkably easy to steal someone’s username and password or even see what they’re doing just by being on the same network.
Don’t take that chance!. Here’s how to stay safe when you’re out and about to get your settings to the appropriate level of security every time you connect to a public network. [Ref: LifeHacker]
The Settings
First, let’s start by talking about what settings and apps can keep you safe. Make sure these are enabled anytime you’re on public Wi-Fi, whether it’s password protected or not. If other people you don’t know are on the same network, you want to protect yourself.
1. Turn Off Sharing
When you’re at home, you may share files, printers, or even allow remote login from other computers on your network. When you’re on a public network, you’ll want to turn these things off, as anyone can access them—they don’t even need to be a hacker, and depending on your setup, some of that stuff probably isn’t even password protected. Here’s how to turn off sharing:
In Windows: Open your Control Panel, then browse to Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center, then click Choose Change Advanced Sharing Settings. Once here, you should definitely turn off file and printer sharing, and you may as well turn off network discovery and Public folder sharing. Some of this is done automatically by Windows if you specify the network as public (more on this later).
In OS X: Go to System Preferences > Sharing and make sure all the boxes are unchecked. You’ll also want to turn off network discovery, which will be in the same place. This will prevent others from even seeing your machine on the network, meaning you’re less likely to be targeted. On Windows (as I mentioned), it’s just another checkbox under advanced sharing settings. On OS X, it will be called “stealth mode” and be under your firewall’s advanced settings (see below).
2. Enable Your Firewall
Most OSes come with at least a basic firewall nowadays, and it’s a simple step to keeping unwanted local users from poking at your computer. You may already be using a firewall, but just in case, go into your security settings (in Windows under Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Firewall; and on a Mac under System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall) and make sure your firewall is turned on. You can also edit which applications are allowed access by clicking on “Allow a program or feature” in Windows and “advanced” in OS X. Your firewall is not an end-all, be-all protector, but it’s always a good idea to make sure it’s turned on.
3. Use HTTPS and SSL Whenever Possible
Regular web site connections over HTTP exchange lots of plain text over the wireless network you’re connected to and someone with the right skills and bad intent can sniff out that traffic very easily. It’s not that big of a deal when the text is some search terms you entered at Lifehacker, but it is a big deal when it’s the password to your email account. Using HTTPS (for visiting web sites) or enabling SSL (when using applications that access the internet, such as an email client) encrypts the data passed back and forth between your computer and that web server and keep it away from prying eyes.
Many sites—including Facebook, Gmail, and others—will do it automatically, but keep an eye on the address bar and make sure the “s” in “https” is always there when you’re exchanging sensitive information. If it disappears, you should log out immediately. Other sites will default to HTTP connections, but support HTTPS if you manually type it in.
Note that if the sensitive browsing can wait—especially if it’s something very sensitive like banking or credit card info—you should just wait to do that sensitive browsing at home. There’s no reason to risk more than you have to.
If you access your email from a desktop client such as Outlook or Apple Mail, You’ll want to make sure that your accounts are SSL encrypted in their settings. If not, people could not only theoretically read your emails, but also get your usernames, passwords, or anything else they wanted. You’ll need to make sure your domain supports it, and sometimes the setup might require different settings or ports—it’s not just a matter of checking the “use SSL” box—so check your email account’s help page for more details. If it doesn’t support SSL, make sure you quit the application when you’re on a public network.
4. Consider Using a Virtual Private Network
Unfortunately, not all sites offer SSL encryption. Other search engines and email providers may still be vulnerable to people watching your activity, so if you use one of these sites frequently (or really just want the extra protection), you may want to try using a VPN, or virtual private network. These services let you route all your activity through a separate secure, private network, thus giving you the security of a private network even though you’re on a public one.
You have a lot of choices, make your choice from some of the best VPNs here—but if you don’t feel like doing the research, I strongly recommend CyberGhost as a dead simple, free option. Install it on your computer, turn it on whenever you’re on a public network, and you’ll be much safer than without it.
5. Turn Wi-Fi Off When You Aren’t Using It
f you want to guarantee your security and you’re not actively using the internet, simply turn off your Wi-Fi. This is extremely easy in both Windows and OS X. In Windows, you can just right-click on the wireless icon in the taskbar to turn it off. On a Mac, just click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and select the turn off AirPort option. Again, this isn’t all that useful if you need the internet, but when you’re not actively using it, it’s not a bad idea to just turn it off for the time being. The longer you stay connected, the longer people have to notice you’re there and start snooping around.
Whats Role will Technology in Job creation Post COVID-19?
Another big concern is about technologies replacing people and eliminating jobs. Most schools are adopting e-learning and other forms of artificial intelligence forms of as to meet up with their academic calendars. The biggest question is: will Artificial Intelligence take away jobs, leaving hundredRead more
Another big concern is about technologies replacing people and eliminating jobs. Most schools are adopting e-learning and other forms of artificial intelligence forms of as to meet up with their academic calendars.
The biggest question is: will Artificial Intelligence take away jobs, leaving hundreds of people jobless?
Work automation is estimated to threaten about 800 million jobs worldwide – but in return, it will create even more.
The main point to keep in mind is that technology will replace tasks, but not the actual jobs. The development of technology is aimed at improving the work processes and making them more accurate, faster, and hassle-free.
While technologies can replace people, who are doing mundane jobs, they also give the opportunity to learn new skills and apply them in the new digitized environment. So, the invasion of technology can be seen as a chance to re-organize the work processes and assign human talents to more sophisticated and complex tasks.
See lessSo What Should You Do to Stay Anonymous While Downloading on Torrent?
I responded to the initial query and I happen to face the same problem as you faced. It's quite unfortunate that PeerBlock was not efficient anymore. I had to try out other solutions and the best use a proxy like BTGuard. It funnels all your BitTorrent traffic through another server, thus keeping yoRead more
I responded to the initial query and I happen to face the same problem as you faced. It’s quite unfortunate that PeerBlock was not efficient anymore.
I had to try out other solutions and the best use a proxy like BTGuard. It funnels all your BitTorrent traffic through another server, thus keeping your IP address hidden from anyone connecting to your BitTorrent swarm.
Even if you’re downloading a torrent that’s being tracked, they’ll see BTGuard’s IP, not yours, and BTGuard doesn’t keep any logs of their service, meaning they won’t trace that IP address back to you.
If you want to keep your browsing speed from being throttled, you can try enabling encryption in your BitTorrent client. If this doesn’t give you the desired result, BTGuard provides an encryption program along with its proxy service that can hide your traffic better than uTorrent and other clients, to ensure you don’t get throttled.
These options are proven and have been tested over the past few days.
See lessDo I Really Need to Care About My Privacy Online?
First, you are creating a problem for them. They must always make conscious effort to maintain online security no matter how to insignificant their task online is. It’s bad if someone steals your password or credit card information, but a lot of people are a lot more apathetic about what they put onRead more
First, you are creating a problem for them. They must always make conscious effort to maintain online security no matter how to insignificant their task online is.
It’s bad if someone steals your password or credit card information, but a lot of people are a lot more apathetic about what they put on Facebook, their personal blog, or anywhere else.
Your data is worth protecting, though, whether you think so or not. Not only does that data give companies and governments more power to track you, but it can make it easier for someone to steal your identity, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Plus, you never know where that data may end up one day, and who might see it (potential employers, for instance).
Some stuff is more important, of course, but don’t let the little stuff slide just because you don’t think anyone will care. Somebody probably does.
Stay Safe Online!..
See lessWill I Get Caught If I Download a Movie on BitTorrent?
Funny question Well if it's worth a consolation, It is NOT TRUE. But seriously: yes, the media companies are always on the prowl, looking for people downloading their content illegally. Your internet provider may even watch your traffic to see if you’re torrenting. The legal ramifications of doing sRead more
Funny question
Well if it’s worth a consolation, It is NOT TRUE.
But seriously: yes, the media companies are always on the prowl, looking for people downloading their content illegally.
Your internet provider may even watch your traffic to see if you’re torrenting. The legal ramifications of doing so aren’t as heavy as they used to be in previous times. With that being said, but you may still get letters from your ISP, reduced browsing speed in most cases, or any other mild punishments.
There are ways to keep yourself anonymous in such situations, of course, but its fail-proof. Applications like PeerBlock claim to block your internet provider from seeing exactly what you are downloading, but they’re not very reliable, and you can still easily get caught when using PeerBlock.
So it snow left to you to decide whether you want to download from torrent or not.
See lessWhy Do I Need to Keep Resetting My Router?
This is a very common problem with routers. Your internet gets slow, so you unplug your router, plug it back in, and all of a sudden it’s magically working again. But why does this happen, really? It could be a number of things: maybe it’s overheating, maybe it’s getting bogged down from too much trRead more
This is a very common problem with routers.
Your internet gets slow, so you unplug your router, plug it back in, and all of a sudden it’s magically working again. But why does this happen, really?
It could be a number of things:
One common way to ease these constant network fluctuations is to make sure you reset it once in a while and wait for 10 seconds minimum when you unplug it before you put it on again. My colleague made me realise it helps the router to reconnect to the server as a fresh connection.
See lessWhat Happens When a Site I Use Gets “Hacked?”
You’ve no doubt heard about all the sites that have gotten compromised in the last year, but what happens when they do? Usually, those hackers are after your username and password, but whether they can get it depends on how a site stores your password, as well as your password’s strength (weak passwRead more
You’ve no doubt heard about all the sites that have gotten compromised in the last year, but what happens when they do?
Usually, those hackers are after your username and password, but whether they can get it depends on how a site stores your password, as well as your password’s strength (weak passwords are much easier to crack than you think).
After you’ve read up on those things, get started on protecting yourself with a good password manager, a different strong password for every site you use, and backup plans in case someone gets into your account anyway.
Hope this clarifies things
See lessHow Can I Tell if an Email Is Spam?
Some spam is so obvious and painful to endure! I know a friend who lost #500,000 in less than 30 mins, but other messages are more subtle. A lot of spam relies upon oh “phishing,” in which a spammer will try to make their email look like it’s coming from a legitimate source in order to get your infoRead more
Some spam is so obvious and painful to endure!
I know a friend who lost #500,000 in less than 30 mins, but other messages are more subtle. A lot of spam relies upon oh “phishing,” in which a spammer will try to make their email look like it’s coming from a legitimate source in order to get your information
[noun: phishing]
They may tell you to click a link that looks like it’s going to a legit website or bank webpage, but if you take a little time to hover over the link, you’ll see that it’s really going somewhere else—likely a different disguised similar looking site where you least suspect fraud and willingly type in your information. Luckily, you can usually avoid those tricks by checking the URL and typing it in yourself instead.
Be careful, too—sometimes those links will cause you to unknowingly spam one of your friends, which only spreads the scam.
The earlier you apply caution, the safer you will be.
See lessDo I Really Need to “Eject” USB Drives?
Hahaha!. Well. It’s because computers use something called write caching to improve performance: if you copy something to your drive, it’ll tell you it’s completed the task, but it’s actually waiting until it has a few other tasks to perform so it can do them all at once. Efficient, right? When youRead more
Hahaha!. Well.
It’s because computers use something called write caching to improve performance: if you copy something to your drive, it’ll tell you it’s completed the task, but it’s actually waiting until it has a few other tasks to perform so it can do them all at once.
Efficient, right?
When you press eject, your PC finishes anything in the queue to make sure you don’t incur any data loss. Windows do a better job of avoiding problems than OS X and Linux, but we recommend ejecting all your drives anyway.
Come to think of it, it’s a small price to pay for keeping your data safe.
LMAO
See lessIs there any possibility of Automating Public Wi-Fi Security Setting?
Yes, you don't want to have to manually adjust all of these settings every single time you go back and forth between the coffee shop and your secure home network. There are a few ways to automate the process so you automatically get extra protection when connected to a public Wi-Fi network. On WindoRead more
Yes, you don’t want to have to manually adjust all of these settings every single time you go back and forth between the coffee shop and your secure home network.
There are a few ways to automate the process so you automatically get extra protection when connected to a public Wi-Fi network.
On Windows
When you first connect to any given network on Windows, you’ll be asked whether you’re connecting to a network at your home, work, or if it’s public. Each of these choices will flip the switch on a preset list of settings. The public setting, naturally, will give you the most security. You can customize what each of the presets entails by
From there, you can turn network discovery, file sharing, public folder sharing, media streaming, and other options on or off for the different profiles. That’s a good start, but if you want a bit more control.
On OS X
OS X doesn’t have these options built-in like Windows, but an app like ControlPlane can do a fair amount of customization. With it, you can turn on your firewall, turn off sharing, connect to a VPN, and a whole lot more, all depending on the network you’ve connected to. Also, Firefox extension automatically chooses the secure HTTPS option for a bunch of popular web sites, including the New York Times, Twitter, Facebook, Google Search, and others, ensuring secure HTTPS connections to any supported web site, every time you visit. You can even add your own to their XML config file.
Consider a “Safety First” Approach
If you’re a real road warrior, you may find yourself adding so many profiles that automating your safe settings at every step along the way may seem like a lot of work. A better approach may be to make your more secure settings the default for your system and create just one profile for your home network. Thus, by default, file sharing would be turned off, your firewall would be at its most secure state, and so on—then, when you return home to your protected network, you can have Airport Location or NetSetMan turn your less secure settings on.
This isn’t all-encompassing by any means but should give you a good quick checklist of things you should do every time you connect to a public network.
Of course, some of us already have your own public browsing routines, so be sure to share your safe networking tips in the comments.
This step works for me, you can share what works for you as well
See lessHow can I possibly stay safe while using Public Wi-Fi?
Public Wi-Fi networks—like those in coffee shopping malls or hotels—are not nearly as safe as you think. Even if they have a password, you're sharing a network with tons of other people, which means your data is at risk. The argument that most wireless routers have firewalls to protect you from theRead more
Public Wi-Fi networks—like those in coffee shopping malls or hotels—are not nearly as safe as you think. Even if they have a password, you’re sharing a network with tons of other people, which means your data is at risk.
The argument that most wireless routers have firewalls to protect you from the internet doesn’t mean you’re protected from others connected to the same network. It’s remarkably easy to steal someone’s username and password or even see what they’re doing just by being on the same network.
Don’t take that chance!. Here’s how to stay safe when you’re out and about to get your settings to the appropriate level of security every time you connect to a public network. [Ref: LifeHacker]
The Settings
First, let’s start by talking about what settings and apps can keep you safe. Make sure these are enabled anytime you’re on public Wi-Fi, whether it’s password protected or not. If other people you don’t know are on the same network, you want to protect yourself.
1. Turn Off Sharing
When you’re at home, you may share files, printers, or even allow remote login from other computers on your network. When you’re on a public network, you’ll want to turn these things off, as anyone can access them—they don’t even need to be a hacker, and depending on your setup, some of that stuff probably isn’t even password protected. Here’s how to turn off sharing:
2. Enable Your Firewall
Most OSes come with at least a basic firewall nowadays, and it’s a simple step to keeping unwanted local users from poking at your computer. You may already be using a firewall, but just in case, go into your security settings (in Windows under Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Firewall; and on a Mac under System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall) and make sure your firewall is turned on. You can also edit which applications are allowed access by clicking on “Allow a program or feature” in Windows and “advanced” in OS X. Your firewall is not an end-all, be-all protector, but it’s always a good idea to make sure it’s turned on.
3. Use HTTPS and SSL Whenever Possible
Regular web site connections over HTTP exchange lots of plain text over the wireless network you’re connected to and someone with the right skills and bad intent can sniff out that traffic very easily. It’s not that big of a deal when the text is some search terms you entered at Lifehacker, but it is a big deal when it’s the password to your email account. Using HTTPS (for visiting web sites) or enabling SSL (when using applications that access the internet, such as an email client) encrypts the data passed back and forth between your computer and that web server and keep it away from prying eyes.
Many sites—including Facebook, Gmail, and others—will do it automatically, but keep an eye on the address bar and make sure the “s” in “https” is always there when you’re exchanging sensitive information. If it disappears, you should log out immediately. Other sites will default to HTTP connections, but support HTTPS if you manually type it in.
Note that if the sensitive browsing can wait—especially if it’s something very sensitive like banking or credit card info—you should just wait to do that sensitive browsing at home. There’s no reason to risk more than you have to.
If you access your email from a desktop client such as Outlook or Apple Mail, You’ll want to make sure that your accounts are SSL encrypted in their settings. If not, people could not only theoretically read your emails, but also get your usernames, passwords, or anything else they wanted. You’ll need to make sure your domain supports it, and sometimes the setup might require different settings or ports—it’s not just a matter of checking the “use SSL” box—so check your email account’s help page for more details. If it doesn’t support SSL, make sure you quit the application when you’re on a public network.
4. Consider Using a Virtual Private Network
Unfortunately, not all sites offer SSL encryption. Other search engines and email providers may still be vulnerable to people watching your activity, so if you use one of these sites frequently (or really just want the extra protection), you may want to try using a VPN, or virtual private network. These services let you route all your activity through a separate secure, private network, thus giving you the security of a private network even though you’re on a public one.
You have a lot of choices, make your choice from some of the best VPNs here—but if you don’t feel like doing the research, I strongly recommend CyberGhost as a dead simple, free option. Install it on your computer, turn it on whenever you’re on a public network, and you’ll be much safer than without it.
5. Turn Wi-Fi Off When You Aren’t Using It
f you want to guarantee your security and you’re not actively using the internet, simply turn off your Wi-Fi. This is extremely easy in both Windows and OS X. In Windows, you can just right-click on the wireless icon in the taskbar to turn it off. On a Mac, just click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and select the turn off AirPort option. Again, this isn’t all that useful if you need the internet, but when you’re not actively using it, it’s not a bad idea to just turn it off for the time being. The longer you stay connected, the longer people have to notice you’re there and start snooping around.
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