Do's and Don'ts Concerning Public Wi-Fi.

• Position: Hacking

Vacation and travel season is well underway, meaning everyone is taking advantage of public Wi-Fi. However, it seems that a majority of travelers and vacationers are still very relaxed about their online safety. The folks at NordVPN (Virtual Private Network) explain the most-common ways that a hacker can take advantage of an unprotected Wi-Fi spot:

Honeypot Wi-Fi. The most common threat still is a hacker positioning himself as a Wi-Fi hotspot--the so-called honeypot. When that happens, a Wi-Fi user will be sending his or her information to a hacker instead to a legitimate spot. This technique is very easy for hackers, as Wi-Fi spots rarely require authentication to establish a connection.

Wireless sniffers. Hackers can be using sniffers, a software designed to intercept and decode data when it is transmitted over a network. Wireless sniffers specifically are created for capturing data on wireless networks, but normally are used by IT specialists to monitor the health of a network and diagnose problems. When a sniffer falls into a hacker's hands, it easily can be used to monitor and decode another person's private data.

Shoulder surfing. When Internet users find themselves in a crowded coffee shop or an airport, there might be data thieves lurking around who will watch over a shoulder to memorize passwords or credit card information that people enter into their device. Just as it is important to be careful when entering a PIN number into an ATM machine, it is wise to make sure no one is looking over a shoulder...