Surf Safely at the Coffee Shop

I like to sit at my local coffee shop with my wireless laptop, sip a double decaf soy latte, and read my email. Is this safe?

Good question, and not one that occurs to a lot of people. Soy lattes can be risky if you don't take proper precautions.

Now, when you connect to the WiFi hotspot at the coffee shop (or on some random street corner downtown), you're connecting to a public, unsecured workgroup. This may not seem like a problem until you consider the other PCs that also may be connected, any of which may share a virus or two with you, or merely serve as a conduit for an intruder hacking into your system.

To improve your security, first turn off any and all shared folders. And if you haven't done so already, set up a password for your user account. This will go a long way toward protecting your data from casual intrusions, but you shouldn't stop there. To be on the safe side, enable the Windows Firewall or install more competent third-party firewall software, such as ZoneAlarm Pro. The best solutions allow you to easily switch between a relaxed state, permitting all your programs to work while you're safely behind your router's firewall at home, and a heightened state of security when you're on the road.

Of course, mind what you do on the Net while you're at that coffee shop, too. As long as you're using someone else's network, nothing you do should be considered private. Although secure SSL-protected web sites do provide better privacy than insecure sites, you're probably better off visiting financial web sites only when you're at home.