When you’re on the go – traveling for work, or telecommuting from your local, cozy coffee house – public WiFi hotspots are a lifesaver. At restaurants, hotels, and even the car repair shop, WiFi Internet access has become ubiquitous and, quite frankly, expected by patrons.

Connecting to a public WiFi hotspot is so easy and convenient; the decision to connect has become automatic. We connect without a second thought, and hackers know this.

The Dangers of Public WiFi

When you walk into an establishment with public WiFi, you can usually connect without a password. Don’t do it.

An open, public WiFi hotspot is unsecured. Anyone can access it and easily monitor the data passing through the WiFi router. Anytime you browse a password-protected website, like your email or social media account, your login credentials pass through the WiFi router. Anyone with easy-to-obtain listening software can capture that data and read it clear as day.

Additionally, anybody could walk into a business and set up his own rogue hotspot with the same name as the business’ WiFi hotpot. Unsuspecting patrons connect to the rogue hotspot and compromise their data.

For example, when you see one WiFi network that’s password-protected and one that’s not, you might be tempted to connect to the open one. It’s easier and free. However, you could be connecting to a rogue hotspot – one that appears to be legit, but isn’t.

Even in your own office, you need to be sure to only connect to your password-protected office WiFi LAN and not a rogue hotspot set up to appear like your office’s WiFi network. Many offices provide open WiFi hotspots for guests, which can easily be spoofed.

Password-Protection Doesn’t Mean Secure

So, are all password-protected WiFi hotspots, such as those found in hotels, secure? It depends on what type of encryption is being used. Password-protected WiFi hotspots use a variety of encryptions, such as WPA, WPA2, or WPS. The WPA and WPS security settings can be cracked in minutes. Only connect to hotspots with WPA2 encryption. You can typically see a hotspot’s encryption settings on your device prior to connecting.

HTTPS is a Good Start

When exchanging sensitive information over a public WiFi network, such as credit card info or login credentials, be sure the URL of the page you are entering this information on starts with “HTTPS” – the “S” standing for secure. If you access your email from a desktop client like Outlook or Apple Mail, make sure your accounts are SSL encrypted.

Ideally, when connected to public WiFi, you should only browse sites that are secure (https). However, not all website use security certificates. And, even though the data on secure web pages is encrypted, someone listening in or “sniffing” the WiFi network can still see what sites you are visiting – information that could be used to profile you.

VPN is the Solution

The safest and easiest way to make sure your device and data are safe when connecting to a public WiFi hotspot is to use trusted VPN (virtual private network) software provided by your company or a third party VPN service (check out Lifehacker’s Five Best VPN Service Providers).

VPN software encrypts all of the data passing to and from your device and anonymizes it. You don’t have to worry about what kind of encryption the WiFi hotspot uses, or only browsing HTTPS pages. VPN is a one-solution-fits-all option that makes connecting to WiFi on the go simple and stress-free.

So, when you’re on the go, it’s easy to take shortcuts with your data security. Don’t. Before you connect to a public WiFi hotspot, be sure to activate your VPN software, or take the precautions detailed above.

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[This article originally appeared on Time Warner Cable Business Class in November 2014.]

Can your small business handle the influx of traffic on Small Business Saturday? Don’t get left in the cold! Here are 3 ways to leverage the increase in post-Thanksgiving consumer spending.

Small Business Saturday, founded in 2010 by American Express, is a day to encourage people to shop at small businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Every year, more and more people are taking part.

Black Friday tends to drive a lot of attention to big retailers, so Small Business Saturday is a way to remember and support small businesses during the holiday shopping season.

According to Twitter, 95% of consumers said they plan to shop smaller retailers in 2014 and spend $3 out of every $10 they have budgeted with small business retailers and e-commerce sites. Additionally, 8 in 10 consumers want to support small businesses during the holidays.

With all this focus on small businesses, the last thing you want is to be caught unprepared. Time Warner Cable Business Class offers you these three tips to make sure your small business runs smoothly on Small Business Saturday and during the holiday season…

1. Increase Your Internet Speed
Increased web traffic could slow your site down to a crawl. Get more bandwidth to meet your e-commerce needs.

2. Add a Phone Line
Do a health check on your business’ phone lines, listening to voicemails, hold music, etc. If necessary, add a phone line to better handle customer inquiries.

3. Secure Your Data
Protect your business data and provide a safe and secure shopping experience for your customers.

Taking these three easy steps will help ensure a stable and rewarding Small Business Saturday for your business.

Give us a call at 1-877-818-9321, if you’d like some help.

[This article originally appeared on QinetiQ North America’s Technology Blog in September 2012.]

In danger of being upstaged at her own wedding ceremony, Laura Wong had a Dragon Runner robot secretly serve as her ring bearer at her wedding this past spring – to the delight of family, friends and geeky romantics everywhere. “Not everybody has a robot at their wedding,” Laura said. Just Princess Leia and these guys.

For the past four years, Laura has been working on the Dragon Runner as a mechanical engineer at QinetiQ North America, designing payloads for the twenty-pound unmanned ground vehicle. “I’ve always had a love for robotics,” Laura confessed. After a failed attempt to train her dog to carry the rings, Laura asked her boss if it would be okay to have a Dragon Runner perform the duty at her wedding.

The whole thing was a secret. Only close family and friends knew the robot would be there. “When it came down the aisle, everyone was laughing and having a blast,” she said. “It went over really well.”

Following the wedding, Laura’s father William Wong posted a write-up of the ceremony, and not surprisingly, the story went viral. Sites like Gizmodo, Buzz Patrol, Geekologie and The Mary Sue picked it up, and Laura and her husband were inundated with attention.

“People were posting on my Facebook page, ‘Did you see this? Look at this one!'” she recounts with a laugh, “It went international. It was a lot more than we expected!”

Check out the video below to meet Laura and listen to her account of the event.

Try not to be too jealous…