Staying Safe Online in Public

Internet Safety out in the Wild

Maxwell’s Tech Program for Thursday, January 25, 2018

This month’s Tech Program at Maxwell will introduce various tools, techniques, and practices for maintaining digital safety when using mobile devices or laptops at public locations.

You may recall that in October 2017, some computer scientists at the University of Leuven in Belgium found a way that hackers could crack WPA2 — the most widely used and most secure Wi-Fi protocol around. While there are now patches to protect against such a so-called KRACK attack, the discovery reminded us all that any technology is subject to hacking.

That continuous weakening of the effectiveness of security fixes is why you keep up with updates for your devices and their software. But when you venture out from your home, you now have to interact with various devices whose security level is not clear.