Are YOU paying for someone else's internet?

I often see wireless connections available that are not password protected. This opens up a large hole in the security of your home computers and, more importantly, your personal information.

How can you tell if your wifi is password protected? Simple! You can use any wireless capable device to determine this. Take your wireless device (laptop, iPhone or iPod Touch, palm, etc.) and scan the area for networks. Once you find your network, take a look at it. There should be a lock next to your network which shows that it is password protected. If not, consult the manual of your wireless router on password protecting your network.

Why is this important? When someone connects to your wireless internet, they're using the internet you pay for in order to connect to the online world. That, alone, would hopefully convince you to lock your network. However, the possibilities don't stop there. Once connected to your network, someone has the ability to easily get inside of any other device connected to that network. From there, they have access to everything, including saved passwords from your internet browser. They could also install a program that records everything you type. After that, they have the program email the records to themselves, and from there it only takes a bit of reading to learn your social security number, bank account numbers and passwords, and anything else you've visited since the program was installed.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of other possibilities that a malicious person could do once connected to your network. I won't go into all of them, but each one has its own dangers to your personal life and the security of you and your loved ones. Putting a password on your network shouldn't take more than five to ten minutes, and could end up saving your bank accounts one day.

I hope you found this helpful. If you have questions, feel free to comment or email me.

Thanks for reading,

-Nick