HotSpot Shield: Keep yourself safe at public hot spots — for free
HotSpot Shield: Keep yourself safe at public hot spots — for free
By Preston Gralla, PC World
Feeling safe when you connect to a hot spot at cafe, airport, or some other public location? You shouldn’t. There are plenty of potential dangers lurking there, including nearby hackers who may try to sniff your packets, or figure out other ways to snoop at what you’re doing online. Particularly dangerous is if you visit any Web sites and type in your user name and password — they could be hijacked. This freebie promises to solve the problem. It claims to encrypt all of your data and packets while you’re in a public location, shielding you from any danger. The program is simplicity itself — install it, run it, and it claims to protect you. A few notes about its use. When you install it, make sure to turn off the Dealio toolbar so that the toolbar doesn’t install — it’s annoying adware. The program works fine without it. Also, when you launch the program, your default browser will launch, and ads may appear in it. You can just close that down, though, and Hotspot Shield will still work fine.
–Preston Gralla