Wifi HotSpots offer a lot of convenience to the business traveler, but they can be a nightmare for security professionals. The advice to use a VPN is good, however it is important not to fall into a false sense of security. In many cases a corporate VPN will only funnel traffic between the user and the company through the VPN. This means that if I am connected to my VPN, but I open up my browser and go to my bank’s web site, my data between my computer and my bank is not encrypted by the VPN. My bank uses a different encryption technology, however many web sites do not encrypt information.

As a rule of thumb, if the URL does not start with https:, don’t enter important information such as passwords.

Randy Abrams is the Director of Technical Education for ESET LLC