HIPAA Security Reminder of the Week

Use of Public Wireless Access Points

The risk is especially high at coffee shops, hotels, airports and other places with a high turnover of laptop users. Many malicious individuals set up laptops to act as wireless access points with legitimate-sounding names such as “T-Mobile”, “Free Wireless Access”, or “Hilton” etc. Wireless access for your laptop is definitely convenient and easy, but you must take precautions to ensure you do not compromise your login credentials or confidentiality of any sensitive data stored on your device.

• Consider subscribing to your own private “MiFi” service.
• Turn off your wireless connection when you’re not using it. Most laptops are configured to search for open wireless points and common wireless names, whether or not the user is trying to get online.
• Don’t use the defaults. Change default names of your network to a unique name and change any default passwords.
• Don’t connect to other computers.
• Don’t share your files.
• Keep your software up-to-date.