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Information Technology Blog
by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Think Again about Connecting to the Airplane Wi-Fi

March 1, 2016

I travel a lot, primarily by flying to my destination. I use the travel time to "disconnect" and relax by reading books on my Kindle. That means I don't connect to the Wi-Fi that is provided by many airlines while flying at 30,000+ feet. There's a good reason not to connect to the airplane's Wi-Fi, even if there is no charge (yeah, airlines give you free stuff). A recent report by ars technica shows the dangers of connecting to a public wireless network. You never know who may be sniffing the data packets to reveal sensitive and confidential information. If you insist on connecting to public wireless networks (I suggest you don't) then you should be encrypting your data stream as a minimum. That means using a VPN or other encrypted transmission mechanism.

I'll be presenting a session at ABA TECHSHOW with Amanda Sexton about securely connecting while on the road. I hope to see you in Chicago mid-March.

E-mail: Phone: 703.359.0700
Digital Forensics/Information Security/Information Technology
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