More of us are using laptops, 30% of the market in preference to a desktop or in addition to a desktop computer. And over 70% of phone users now have Internet Access enabled phones and are using them as their primary way to manage their services, applications, data and email / Instant Message communications. This article from CNET (Feb. 12, 2010) explains that any heavy user of Internet Access via the phone should make sure their next phone, if it does not already, supports WiFi (802.11n) access. This is the same technology used by laptops for wireless networking. The amount of data (bandwidth) needed to send and receive web information is bursting the current capabilities of the cell phone industries infrastructure. For this reason cell phone companies are hoping you will choose WiFi hotspots for your web surfing to free up how much data travels via the cell-phone towers. And it is likely we all will choose this option when available for faster web surfing.
This brings up some security issues. First, How secure is that cell phone call when using the Cell Phone companies cell tower? Actually more secure than many home wireless phones (see legal issues). Most of the major U.S. Cell Phone Service providers use Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) like;
, 
, 
, and 
that sends the call information over multiple paths that makes it difficult to intercept. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) on which GSM technology is based breaks calls into time-slots and is used by 
and 
. Both technologies are difficult to intercept since they are both digital and break the communication up into pieces. Just be aware that if “roaming” this is an analog signal and it is much easier to be monitored by radio scanners.
What needs to be weighed when talking on the phone is how valuable is the information being discussed. If a person or organization would spend lots of money for it then assume they are listening. Giving your debit card over the cell phone that contains your life savings is not a good idea but giving out an account’s information that only holds a limited amount of funds may not be as great a worry. [As a side note it is worth having a separate account for on-line purchases, over-the-phone purchases if using a debit type card or a credit card is a good option since it does not link to actual money but links to credit.] The goods news is that using a cell phone is a relatively safe way to communicate and the chance of eavesdropping is slim. A word of caution, however, is to not accept another phone as a gift or think twice about buying a 2nd hand phone as there are snooping programs that can be installed on a cell phone!
If absolute security is required a 3rd party encryption product is necessary and both parties for the cell-phone call need to use the same technology solution.
Security for WiFi is another BIG issue (see Working in a Cafe). The safest method for connecting via a public WiFi access point is using Virtual Private Networking (VPN). If the WiFi connection is not using encryption where you need to use a password to access the WiFi Hotspot, with WPA2 being the current safest encryption type, then all transmissions are vulnerable to being snooped so be extremely careful what information you send or receive while using a non-encrypted public connection. Most safe activities would be doing general research, looking up public transportation schedules and such. But you should switch to your cell phones built-in email handling applications, if available, for managing email. Plus, avoid going to financial account web-sites or using web-sites where you are entering a user-name and password. Although this may seem a bit more complicated it is mostly common-sense because if you have a laptop and there are strangers sitting nearby you would not want to have your financial accounts open on the laptop so just take it a step further and assume those strangers can “see” the information being sent & received while using a public WiFi hotspot.
