Before you get online, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve taken the correct security measures to ensure that no one can hack into your laptop and start downloading over your new mobile broadband connection.
But what are the risks when using a USB dongle, and what security measures should you take?
The biggest risk
Because a mobile broadband connection is essentially a mobile phone contract, with a SIM card, the biggest risk is that you’ll lose your modem, or it will get stolen, because anyone could simply plug it into their own computer and download as much as they want - all of which will go on your bill at the end of the month.
If you do lose your modem, or if it does get stolen, you need to ring your provider and tell them as soon as possible to make sure that the line is cancelled or suspended - just as you would with your mobile phone.
Local IP connection
Unlike a normal, fixed line broadband connection, mobile broadband users aren’t assigned an internet IP address. Instead, you’ll have a local IP address like you would in an office.
Although you won’t notice any difference when you’re browsing the internet, this actually makes your connection more secure. Just like in an office, your connection sits behind the provider’s firewall, with a local IP address - making it far harder to hack into.
However, this does mean that you won’t be able to connect to your mobile broadband connection remotely from another computer.
Built in encryption
Because mobile broadband uses the provider’s GSM mobile network where everything is already encrypted, it’s like having a WEP or WPA key built into your connection.
It’s not like wireless
Although it feels like you have a “wireless” connection, no one else could scan for your signal as they would be able to do with wifi. So if you’re using your modem on a train or in a coffee shop you don’t need to worry about other people in the area hacking in.
Group packages
However, if you have signed up to one of the Orange (www.Orange.co.uk) or Vodafone (www.Vodafone.co.uk) group tariffs, and are using a mobile broadband wireless router, you’ll have to take the usual wifi precautions - such as setting a secure WEP or WPA key - so that unknown users can’t simply scan for your signal and connect to your router.
Use our free Wireless key generator to create unique, hard-to-crack WEP and WPA encryption keys.
General security
Anyone accessing the internet needs to ensure that they have a reliable, up-to-date security suite such as Norton or McAfee installed on their PC to protect them from viruses, Trojans and hackers.
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