BANGALORE, INDIA: Cyberoam, a division of Elitecore Technologies, had issued suggestions on user education against the practice of using open or poorly secured wireless access points in face of Wi-Fi technology becoming almost ubiquitous.

The stress on user education comes in the wake of rising incidence of attacks for financial gains and most importantly for subversive activities by terrorists who routinely hack into a Wi-Fi network to cover their trails.

While identity-based Cyberoam solution is a name to reckon with, in the security industry for providing comprehensive security to the corporate networks, it scores a special point for providing exceptional security in Wi-Fi settings through its patent-pending identity-based technology.

This solution identifies users with their username and enables setting up access policies by username rather than IP address of a machine. Hence, with user identity as the fundamental basis of security, when an intruder accesses the Wi-Fi, he or she still cannot access the corporate Internet as Cyberoam would not recognise the user.

Harish Chib, Cyberoam, said: "Internet users leave their systems vulnerable to hackers by not setting their security configurations properly. The hacker gets a free run in monitoring every piece of information that is sent over the network, and also in tunneling through to a corporate network if connected to a VPN."

"The problems associated with this go beyond the fact of granting someone else free Internet access and could result in identity theft, eavesdropping, interception and modification of data in transit, spoofed e-mail messages, malware insertion attacks, service disruption and bandwidth loss etc.," he added.

"A few basic steps and simple precautions like using encryption, changing default network name, Stopping SSID Broadcast, Enabling Firewall features, Turning off Access points when not in use, etc goes a long way in preventing these problems and stopping online criminals in their tracks."

The successful implementation of any security measure requires the awareness and participation of the users.

Cyberoam's do's and don'ts for users in Wi-Fi settings

Make sure the laptop security is up to date, with current versions of your operating system, web browser, firewalls, and antivirus and anti-spyware software.

Don't conduct financial transactions or use applications like e-mail and instant messaging while connected over public hotspots

Change the default setting on laptop so you have to manually select the Wi-Fi network you're connecting to. 

Position the Access points centrally in home settings

Turn off your laptop's Wi-Fi capabilities when not in use

Cyberoam UTM has a satisfied customer base with more than 4500 installations. The appliance is available in the range of CR25i to CR1500i, providing comprehensive network security to large medium and small corporations, educational institutions and government organisations across more than 20 countries.