Today’s Scam of the day is one of three being posted early today because I am about to travel to an area with limited Internet access. This leads me to the first of three Scams of the day that will be posted in advance today. Many people will be travelling this summer for their summer vacations. Many people take vacations to take a break from the responsibilities of work and running a household, however few of us seem to want to take a break from being connected to the world through our cellphones and that poses a particular threat to our security when we use public Wi-Fi in coffee shops, airports, hotels and other places while on vacation.  Whenever you use public wifi, there are two problems.  First, you can’t be sure that you are actually using the public Wi-Fi and not a phony Wif-Fi readily set up by a hacker sitting near you who is stealing your information and second, someone may be able to hack into your device while you are on the legitimate public Wi-Fi.
TIPS
Whatever electronic device you are using to connect to a Wi-Fi network, whether it is a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone should be equipped with up to date security software. Also use dual factor authentication whenever possible. Switch off your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections when you are not using them.  In addition, you should have encryption software so that your communications are encoded.  You also should go to your settings and turn off sharing.  In addition, you should make sure that your firewall is current and turned on.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you should consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which enables you to send your communications through a separate and secure private network even while you are on a public network.  Here is a link to an article that lists ten good VPNs that you can get for free.  http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-vpn
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