Have you ever had your data stolen while on the network? Do you think you are secure as long as you’re within the office firewall, or your residential broadband router? The fact is that most networks are vulnerable, and many are insecure, to some extent. Hence, data theft can happen.

Most local area networks, whether wired or wireless, exchange information publicly across the entire network, waiting for the intended recipient of the information to pick up whatever data packets are being sent. This means that if you have ten computers in a network, then any information sent by, say, computer A, intended only for computer B is actually broadcast to everybody, including the eight others. The data packets are labeled for computer B, and hence the other ones just ignore and drop these.

However, in such a setup, the other computers can actually listen in, if so wanted. Malicious hackers can deploy packet sniffers, which are used to catch each and every packet traveling in the network. The packets are then reconstituted in the sniffer’s computer, and the information intended for the other computers can now be read. Now imagine you’re sending an email or a report that you intend to keep secret. Your information is not so secret at all.

Public WiFi access points use an open system, to enable all types of devices to connect. Hence, no wireless encryption or authentication is employed. We shall discuss how to overcome these security risks.