October is National Security Month
Monday, October 14th, 2019 -- 9:47 AM
(WRN) -October is Cyber Security Month and it's a good time to be aware of the sorts of ways criminals might be trying to get access to your devices.While it might be handy to save your data by connecting to a public wifi hotspot, that could invite bad actors to get access to your information. State consumer protection director Michelle Reinen says the person who runs that wifi node has the ability to sniff out any traffic that goes through the network.
"We really encourage consumers to not do critical online banking or logging into work emails, or any kind of personally identifiable transactions when they're on public wifi."
Reinen says one attack method people don't think about is using those public phone charging stations.
"You need to be careful that you're not transmitting your data. That it's not some thief there who's set something up to steal the data off your device, whether it be your tablet, your computer or your phone."
Reinen says the safest way to charge your phone in public is to use your own charger.
"In many of these public places they've really increased the amount of outlets available, so people can sit there and charge up, because we're in a constant state of information mode."
She recommends only doing that sort of business on internet connections you trust, or doing it at home or at work.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.