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3 On Your Side: Avoid Getting Hacked On Vacation

By Jim Donovan

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Will you be hitting the road this summer and taking a vacation? Despite the desire to get away from it all, most of us will still want to stay connected, so here is some advice on how to keep your mobile devices and connections from getting hacked while on vacation.

You're on summer vacation at a fabulous destination, and you can't wait to share photos on social media. Lucky for you, there's Wi-Fi at the hotel, at the cafe on the corner and on planes and trains in between. Unlucky for you, it could be risky.

Whether you pay to access a hotspot or not, and even if there's a password involved, experts say nearly all of them are completely unsecure.

While most Wi-Fi users know to use more caution when using a free hotspot, paying to use a connection at a hotel, an airport or on an airplane can create a false sense of security.

So here is some advice to protect yourself:

  • Confirm the name of a hotel or restaurant's hotspot with the establishment's staff.
  • Disable features on a mobile device that automatically connect to any network within range.
  • Turn off a device's Wi-Fi connection when not in use.

Another option is a VPN, a virtual private network, which creates a secure network within a Wi-Fi connection, usually by logging in through a website.

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