| One of my favorite pastimes I like to do in | | | | know he is chatting online with his wife. |
| Starbucks is eavesdropping on everybody's | | | | What if you are transmitting important |
| conversation online. Since Starbucks offers free | | | | information over an unsecured connection and I |
| internet access, everybody will be busy sipping | | | | happen to stumble upon it? How to prevent a |
| their coffee and texting messages with their | | | | thief like me that is snooping what is in the air? |
| devices. None of these coffee drinkers really | | | | The easiest and fastest way on how to prevent |
| know how vulnerable they are and how to | | | | theft online is to get yourself a VPN, short for |
| protect themselves from theft online like me. | | | | Virtual Private Network. VPN creates a secure |
| I turn on my Mac and run an application to collect | | | | network by encrypting your data between you |
| data over the wireless network. Then I go queue | | | | and your destination site over a public network |
| up for my coffee. By the time I am back, I have | | | | such as the internet. There are many flavors of |
| collected enough data for me to read. Most of | | | | security standard known as protocols. The |
| the data are instant messaging conversations. | | | | commonly used protocols are IPsec, L2TP, and |
| Sometimes I do intercept email and photos. | | | | SSL/TLS. These VPNs can be configured for use |
| If I find something interesting about a | | | | in PDA such as iPhone too. For the highest |
| conversation, I will lift my head up and try to | | | | security, use SSL/TLS or sometime also label as |
| identify who the person is. One time, my coffee | | | | SSL VPN. |
| buddy says, "Give him another ten minutes and | | | | Get yourself familiar with VPN technologies today, |
| we can leave." I subconsciously reply saying, | | | | ask for a trial package from your provider and |
| "Take his time, we can leave once he is done | | | | start learning how to prevent theft online. |
| with his wife." He looks up to me and asks how I | | | | |