BANGALORE, INDIA: Recently, we read how fake WiFi networks steal data from smartphones. Now, it's not just the smartphones that are at risk, but also personal data stored in PCs or laptops owing to seemingly harmless public WiFi networks.

In an era, where Internet has become an unavoidable part of our lives and where work on the go and accessing data irrespective of place, time and object have become the norm, it also brings in the other side of the story that anything and everything accessed from the world of Internet is no more safe.

Having said that however, it would be going over the board to ask people not to use public networks or to be 24/7 alert while doing so. But then as the saying goes, 'prevention is always better than cure'.

Manjit Singh, MD, Ruckus Wireless, India & SAARC, shares a charter of dos and don'ts to be used while accessing public/private networks.

DOs:

* One of the easiest things to do is to log off from every site you visit that needs you to enter a username or password.

It's easy to forget to do it but if you don't, the next person to use that computer can go to the browser history and see where you were last and open the site. It is possible that you 'left the door open' and who knows what they will have access to.

** Use only sites that are secure. If you're shopping make sure whatever site you visit supports HTTPS. If it doesn't, go somewhere else.

*** Use a centralized, online password keeper like LastPass (http://www.lastpass.com), so that you don't have to manually enter passwords that others might see.

**** Turn off your Wi-Fi when you are not using it.

***** Adjust your security settings. Do this via Control Panel. Change 'Sharing Options'. One thing to do is to turn off your 'Network Discovery'. This means that others can't find you when looking for available wireless networks. Also, turn off 'Public folder sharing'.