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Most hotels today offer amenities geared to the 'Net-hungry traveler: Wireless access (often free) throughout the hotel or in the lobby area, ethernet cables in hotel rooms, and business centers in the hotel lobby equipped with PCs and printers. Whether it is an ethernet of wifi connection, the majority of hotels and wifi providers cannot be condidered safe from frying eyes and really should be used as an absolute last resort. On average, almost all free internet establishments do not have an IT department to oversee the network or do weekly audits to ensure the system has not been compromised. More often than not, the network is powered with an off the shelf router and access points that have not even had their default settings and passwords changed. Many hotel business centers make no attempt at even basic security. For example, far too many use the administrator account for logging on - often without even a password. This allows anyone who uses the computer to install programs, modify security settings, and purposely or accidentally infect or compromise the PC's security. Use of the built-in Guest account would restrict users' ability to install programs and modify system settings, and greatly increase the security of the hotel business center PC. Hotels that restrict access to the Guest account only are unfortunately rare. If you must use a hotel business center, confine it to only the most essential tasks. Assume that any work you perform on that business center PC is being monitored by attackers. When you return to your home or office, change any passwords to accounts you may have accessed through the business center PC. Above all, don't conduct any banking or confidential business via a hotel Internet kiosk, hotel business center PC, or free wifi provider.
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