Hotels manage to make guests feel like they are in a home
away from home by offering various amenities that the guest would normally
have. One of the most requested, and
most often used, amenities is an active Internet connection. While guests can surf the Internet, check
e-mails, or teleconference back home, they fail to notice just how unsafe most
Internet connections really are.
Hotel guests travel for various reasons, ranging from
business trips to weekend getaways. With
the modern tech-era upon us, one of the most requested hotel amenities is an active
Internet connection. As guests settle in
they use the hotel’s Internet connection to surf the web. What most people fail to notice is that Internet privacy and security offered
by a hotel is quite minimal. Guests
expect the hotel to be a home away from home and Internet access allows them to
be more productive or stay in touch with people back home. While this is a common amenity, most guests
fail to realize how unsafe the network connection actually is.
According to researchers many of the Internet connections hotels
offer are quite unsafe. Most of the Internet
connections offered are not properly secured and leave guests open to many
privacy risks. Researchers gathered
written information from various hotels and personally visited other properties
and the findings were astounding. Roughly
20% of all hotels use simple network hubs to connect guests to the Internet. This means about a fifth of the hotels you
have ever stayed at are allowing you to connect to an unsecured network. This means all the packets of data being sent
over the network can be seen by other users, allowing them to access your
personal data. Ideally, hotels should
have security features implemented so only the packets associated with your
session should be seen. No other users
should have access to the data. This
would stop an "interloper" from using a program that saves all
packets being sent over the network.
Of the hotels that do offer Internet access, 90% of them offer
wireless connections. This adds an extra
layer of protection since the router used to get the signal out has built-in
security features. Even though a router
does offer advanced security features, it still does not mean the user’s
personal information is being protected.
Man-in-the-middle attacks are still possible, and more than one of every
five hotels have reported attacks and malicious activity on their network. Man-in-the-middle attacks allow an attacker’s
computer to act as an Internet gateway and intercept all network traffic. Very few hotels using wireless Internet have
encryption enabled on their network and researchers found only about 15% of the
studied properties thought of going above and beyond their standard router and
securing their network! Anyone using a
hotel's Internet connection should assume the worst and hope for the best.
Hotel guests should take the responsibility of securing the
Internet connection upon themselves. This
will take away the mystery of wondering whether the hotel has a secured
connection. An anonymous proxy server is
arguably the best way to maintain Internet privacy and online safety. Surfing via private
proxy servers will secure the Internet connection by encrypting the
data being transmitted over the network.
The encrypted information remains that way until it reaches its
destination, which holds the code to decrypt the message. Aside from packet sniffing, it is possible
for someone to track web surfing habits and gain personal information, even on
a secured connection. A proxy will
prevent this by masking the IP address allowing the user to safely surf from
any connection and maintain complete anonymity.
A hotel guest has the ability to stay connected with friends, family,
and coworkers, even from thousands of miles away, but many fail to see that
Internet security should be dealt with preemptively. It is not a matter of being protected by some
other entity, but going above and beyond the bare minimum on your own accord to
stay safe.
Tino Bruno is the Internet Marketing Specialist for
award-winning software developer Privacy Partners. He has been with Privacy Partners since
college and strives to ensure all computer users maintain their Internet
privacy and online safety. Come visit Privacy Partners for more
information on staying protected while surfing the Internet.