Starbucks offers free internet access!

Starbucks announced a plan to offer free Internet access at 11,000 locations.  As an entrepreneur, coffee shop has become my primary sales office.  Apart from coffee and food, coffee shops also give us tables, comfortable chairs, and quiet environment.  Now, Starbucks offers free Wi-Fi.  What else can we expect?  I believe very soon other coffee shops have to follow Starbucks’ footstep and offer free Wi-Fi.

However, I would like to draw your attention that most Wi-Fi hotspots don’t use encryption to scramble the data being sent to and from our computer and the hotspot. This means anyone with the right tools, can potentially intercept the raw data packets of our connection which may include your online identity; i.e. username and password. 

So if we have to transfer any sensitive information, we have to make sure that we are connected to the website through Secure Socket Layer (SSL). 

The first URL starts with https, indicates a SSL connection is used.

The second one is simple http connection, without any encryption.

Email is also a concern.  By default, most email services providers do not encrypt  email content so any sensitive information in our email is not secured.  Always make sure to configure the server connection settings with SSL enabled.

Another potential risk is the data on our laptop.  If our firewall or sharing settings aren’t properly configured, then hackers at the hotspot location can access to our data – not good.

If you often work at coffee shop or other public place with Wi-Fi, then you must work with a security consultant to make sure your computer is not compromised.

Andrew Chan is the owner and founder of ALG Inc.