Tips to travel this summer and use Wi-Fi with peace of mind

Summer holidays are the best – school is over, work is slowing down a bit, your destination is chosen, and the bags are made, and you’re ready to hit the road with your best travel companion – your smartphone! Whether it’s entertaining your child with video games and applications, taking pictures and sharing them with friends and family on various social networks like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter – you connect to free public Wi-Fi whenever you get the chance. It is important for everyone to remember that free public Wi-Fi in hotels, shops, cafes and other commercial establishments is also open to malicious people.

Keep in mind that « free » is not always as free as you think and that public Wi-Fi has its own risks. The good news is that preventing hackers from stealing your data can be done with a little awareness and some proactive measures. The key lesson here is that it is easy to hack into a Wi-Fi network and that it is even easier to get users to connect to a fake Wi-Fi.

Here are 3 easy steps you can take today to protect yourself and your family when you’re away from home or work:

– Do not connect to public Wi-Fi SSIDs if several variants are available. This is not normal for a legitimate company. For example, ask the reception of a hotel to confirm the name of its Wi-Fi network and if it has an encrypted Wi-Fi network, ask for the password. You can do the same at any café, restaurant or store you visit. They don’t always offer an encrypted Wi-Fi network, like when you negotiate with these souvenir shops, you’ll never know what you can get unless you ask for it!

– If you want to check your work emails, or if you need access to something like your bank account, consider turning off Wi-Fi and using your 4G connection. Once you’ve finished the confidential task, feel free to return to Wi-Fi.

– Delete the saved Wi-Fi network names from each of your devices and remember to turn off the « auto-connect » feature in your device settings. This will ensure that your phone does not connect you to a Wi-Fi you have already visited without your knowledge. Yes, it can be embarrassing, but believe me, you don’t want your phone to automatically connect to someone who broadcasts a backed up Wi-Fi network to listen to and steal your mail, login credentials, etc.