Doug Cone and his colleague Dr. Jeff Ligon build Web sites and educate people on protecting themselves online.
They say a new concern focuses on how you connect to the net.
On a hotel’s public wi-fi, they apply software that lets them into email accounts, grab passwords and more.
“Right now I am on the hotel wireless network and these are some of the people who’ve logged into that network,” Ligon said.
Ligon and Cone say with the publicly available software, anyone can use it to take your information from you.
Ligon and Cone used it in a Greenville coffee shop to show the danger.
(Editor’s note: Due to public safety concerns, wspa.com will not name the software used).
Less than five minutes after News Channel 7 started using the software, reporters saw multiple people logged on and their information.
Amy Wood found a wi-fi user, Anne Smith, almost immediately.
“That is just a little terrifying,” Smith said.
Amy found that Smith logged into Amazon, Google and other sites.
“That’s kind of scary,” Smith said. “I just now got on Amazon, I mean, like, two seconds ago.”
With a quick google.com search, Amy used her email address to find Smith's church, twitter account and where she works.
Cone says its easy for unscrupulous types to find this information.
He gave a number of tips to help users protect themselves:
- Clear your cookies and cache
- Make sure you log into legitimate wi-fi connections
- Look for Web sites that use “https” in the web address: The “s” stands for secure
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Doug advises checking your privacy settings annually, to be sure as the companies make adjustments things are still as you want them.
An easy way to be sure ALL of your privacy settings are where you want them to be on Facebook, keeping the most info private possible, is to visit reclaimprivacy.org.
Click here to see a video of Amy Wood explaining how to make sure your Facebook login is secure.
Doug also advices you clear cookies and your cache on your computer weekly if not daily. He provides a DEMO on this link.
Here is a link with information explaining how to do it with some of the major browsers.
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