One of the most convenient new offerings at airports and other public places, such as coffee shops, is pay-per-use wireless service for laptops.

Wireless service provides privacy and convenience not available on the pay-per-use Internet kiosks seen in airports and other public places over the last few years. The downside is that the convenience comes with many security risks to your company networks.

How it Works and Why Wireless Access is a Security Risk

In a wireless network, a hacker on a laptop can gain access to another laptop and view or manipulate any files on other uplinked network. For example, an employee accessing the company network via the Internet through the wireless connection in a public place may be exposing the company to hackers. The network is made accessible to a hacker by the shared wireless network, allowing him to change or destroy unprotected documents, install a virus or cause some other form of damage.

In order to avoid this pitfall, “close off” all Microsoft services, install intrusion detection systems software and use only the Internet connectivity tools while logged onto a wireless connection. To do this, go to My Network Places, right click and select Properties. At this point, you can disable any unnecessary services that would render your computer vulnerable.

If you need to be connected both the Internet via wireless service and have the ability to access documents, save documents before leaving the office on your computer’s hard drive. That way, a hacker cannot gain access to an entire network.

Also, keep in mind that with a wireless connection, a hacker can plant onto your laptop a Trojan that can activate at a later time – possibly when the laptop is back in the corporate network. Once a Trojan is activated, it can spread and create security holes on the company home network, allowing hackers to gain entrance.

Cebic recommends bi-annual computer security audits to ensure no Trojans are present on your system. If you are a subscribing customer to Cebic’s Remote Intelligence™ and would like to know how frequently your network is scanned for malicious files, please call 303-987-3679.