Your Worst Security Nightmare: Double Lattes?

What's your biggest security vulnerability?

It just might be a double latte.

That's according to the preliminary results of a Networking Pipeline poll about whether businesses have policies about Hot Spot use. The voting is still going on, but at the moment, only 11 percent of those who have responded say that their companies have a policy regarding employee use of Hot Spots.

These days, just about any business is well-stocked in firewalls and security hardware and software. But they don't realize that there is no longer a network perimeter that need protecting. Every time their employees leave the office with a laptop, their network security walks out the door.

New Hot Spot dangers pop up practically ever day, it seems. Just this week, for example, Wireless LAN security vendor AirDefense warned of a new type of "WiPhishing" attack aimed at Hot Spot users, that could within a matter of minutes, silently load up to 45 viruses on a laptop without the owner know about it. And those viruses can then get loose on your network.The answer to this is simple: Set a Hot Spot policy for your corporation. Make sure that when people connect via Hot Spots, they use a corporate VPN. Automatically install anti-spyware apps on everyone's laptops, and make sure you have enterprise-wide anti-spyware protection as well. Set rules about which to which Hot Spots people can connect, and which are verboten. Install personal firewalls on everyone's PC. And train people in wireless security.

For advice on doing this, check out Hotspot Hacking And How To Fight It and Blocking Spyware at the Network Gateway.