You still get Internet access because they're hooked up to let you do that but all your data is going through their computer and can be seen and captured."īy using a VPN connection to encrypt the traffic from your device, it protects you against these kinds of attacks. At airports, there are lots of people with a laptop, so they blend in. You're actually logging on to that laptop. This is a common thing that bad guys use, where someone advertises their laptop as a WiFi network.
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"You go to see what available wireless networks there are, one might be called FREE WIFI. It's a kind of WiFi phishing you might encounter at a coffee shop or airport. It's an example of a very easy to use tool that a kid could use."īullock described a number of other attacks such as one called an "evil twin" attack, where a hacker mimics a local hotspot, encouraging unsuspecting users to connect. You could hijack a session and log into those services. It could take over a person's Facebook account, Twitter account, etc. There's one called FireSheep that works right out of the Firefox browser. "There are a number of tools available that people with little technical knowledge can use. Sniffing your data, or monitoring the traffic eminating from your computer, is a potential problem at public hotspots. "If someone's in another room, they may be able to sniff your traffic." People often feel more secure on a wire, but their data is just as exposed. "Our VPN works over any connection across wires or Wi-Fi." Many consumers don't consider how vulnerable shared wired connections can be, but at hotels, users will still be sharing the same network. We were one of the first to put out a consumer market VPN."īullock talked to me about security issues and why home users might want to invest in a VPN account.
Bullock told me, "Before us, VPN was really thought to be mostly a corporate and government product. WiTopia is practically a geriatric, old-age pensioner in this field, having been founded back in 2005. Its focus is on providing privacy and security for general users rather than aiming at the total-anonymity user base. WiTopia has a good reputation at TUAW and several of our bloggers are customers. I recently had an opportunity to sit down with Bill Bullock, CEO of WiTopia, a personal VPN services provider, to chat about the technology. They're looking to shift locations to access georestricted resources like local blacked-out football games or Hulu from outside the US. They want to avoid oversight, tracking and other privacy infringement by websites like Google. They need an end-run around corporate (no playing at the office) or government censorship (think China), so they can access services and websites that they'd otherwise be cut off from. They'd rather not share their personal credentials with identity thieves. They share public WiFI hotspots and want to protect their data at cafes, airports and hotels. You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu.
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