Hackers Drink Coffee Too!

It is late Sunday afternoon and the kids are getting on your nerves, or maybe it is the significant other (which NEVER happens to any of us of course, we're just pretending). So you grab your company laptop, announce to the family that you have some very important work to finish and need some quiet time. Then you head to the local Starbucks/Panera/Kool-Koffee-Kafe-With-Wireless-Access to grab some java and maybe get some real work done.

You fire up the laptop after settling into your seat with your Triple Expresso MochaChinoLatte coffee, answer all the questions/view the ads/whatever to get access to the "free" wireless hotspot. You think about the spreadsheet/document/PowerPoint you need to finish, but of course you feel you should let the caffeine kick in first so you check the sports scores, make sure your stock portfolio is on track, update your blog, and check your personal email before attacking the real work at hand.

Once all the really mundane tasks are completed and you can concentrate once again, you log into the company network, check your business email, then launch Excel/Word/PowerPoint and put the final masterful touches on your document. The coffee was good, the work was excellent and you are human once more - ready to face the kids, the spouse and maybe even get that last bit of yard work done before dark. Don't we just love all this cool technology, free wireless and the latest frou-frou creations from our favorite coffee house!

Now, I don’t want to scare you… no, I have to take that back, I DO want to scare you, but just a little bit: On the other side of the coffee house, drinking his/her own favorite brand of caffeine, and quietly working away at their own laptop, was our proto-typical evil hacker genius - watching all the traffic flying through the air on Starbucks/Panera/Kool-Koffee-Kafe-With-Wireless-Access's wi-fi "NETWORK". Network you say? As in, connecting-a-bunch-of-computers-together-so-they-can-communicate-and-share-information… that kind of network? Yup. (Yup is Southeastern American for 'yes')

Just wanted you all to realize that when you join one of these wi-fi networks, whether it is Starbucks, Panera, the Hilton hotel or the free wireless offered in some metro areas, that you are joining a network - and the purveyors of said wireless hotspots are usually more interested in connecting you to the internet easily (after seeing their ad of course) than they are making sure you are secure and using an encrypted session - read the fine print, you are responsible for security related to using their network. Skeered yet? (Skeered is Southeastern American for 'frightened')

So our job (yes, OUR as in you and me) is to make sure our laptops are as secure as possible, and that we use the tools and knowledge available to us to safely connect to things like wi-fi hotspots without leaving any doors unlocked.

Back to our evil wiley hacker genius. With some simple free software and changing some settings on their wireless card, hacker boy/girl can scan for and try to view the data flying around this network. If your blog doesn't encrypt the sign in process, our oh so clever hacker may be able to 'see' your password. They can also attempt to communicate with the other computers currently attached to this network - looking for any unsecured systems and attempting to access folders and files. This would be analogous (betcha didn’t know Southeastern Americans knew such fancy words, didja?) to your common thief wandering a street trying car doors til he/she finds one left unlocked, then rifling through your vintage early 90's CD collection of hair metal bands then scratching "loser!" on each one and…… well, you can see how leaving your car door unlocked just begs someone to come invade your privacy. <sniff>

So our job (yes, OUR as in you and me) is to make sure our laptops are as secure as possible, and that we use the tools and knowledge available to us to safely connect to things like wi-fi hotspots without leaving any doors unlocked. The best way to do this? Make sure your Windows patches are up to date. Make sure you have antivirus/Internet security software loaded and it's up to date. And get yourself a VPN client, either through work or a consumer product like the ones from Norton, Avast or ExpressVPN. This software masks your data, effectively encrypting ALL your network traffic when you start it up - right after you finish watching the nice Starbucks/Panera ad and get connected to the internet - before you check your stocks, check your personal email, etc.

Next, don’t ever ever ever (means 'never') use websites that pass your credentials (geek speak for 'passwords') in the clear. Remember that little yellow lock in the lower right-hand corner of your Windows brand web browser? That symbol, when it is present, tells you that some level of security is enabled between your laptop and the web site you are signing into. I refuse to do business or pleasure with any website that doesn't use some form of security when I log in, and you should too.

So 'surf safe' while enjoying your Colombian Nariño Supremo, or the ever popular Decaf Shade Grown Mexico (which goes well with Oranges and Nuts).

Later! (which is Southeastern American for Ciou!, Vaarwel! Tchau! Adios! Auf wiedersehen! Shalom! Αντίο!)

[No actual coffee beans were injured or killed during the production of this message]