Minimizing Wi-Fi Risks

Public relations people tend to spend a lot of time in the field, making presentations, meeting with clients and their stakeholders and setting up special events. Like all road warriors, PR professionals depend upon a wide range of high-tech tools. What I hadn’t been aware of until recently is the fact that your Wi-Fi can put your laptop — and your important data — at risk.

Consumerist recently featured an article recommending that you disable your Wi-Fi before you close the lid on your laptop … otherwise thieves using inexpensive Wi-Fi scanners can locate — and snatch — your computer. (Some laptops can take 30 minutes or more before going into “sleep” mode.)

One more word of warning — this time from Domenico Bettinelli’s Bettnet blog (via Neatorama). In airports that offer free Wi-Fi, before you connect, check out the options carefully.

“I was recently at New York’s JFK airport in the JetBlue terminal, where they have prominent signs offering free Wi-Fi, courtesy of the airline,” Bettinelli reports. “But when I went to connect, I noticed that several options were available including one labeled ‘default’ and another labeled ‘JetBlue free hotspot.’”

It turns out that the former was the real, free Wi-Fi and the latter was a trap designed to fool unsuspecting travelers into exposing their computers and data to hackers.

It’s good advice for PR pros — and indeed for anyone who travels for a living and relies on high-tech devices: Check before you connect. And be sure to disconnect when you’re done!

Bank of America Tweets Its Customers Well

Our New York City-based public relations firm is a strong advocate for using the new consumer-generated, or social, media to build connections, rapport and trust. In fact, our specialized Online Fluency practice, headed by EVP + Partner Robbin Goodman, is devoted entirely to the art and science of social networking with stakeholders. So I was intrigued to read an interesting piece on one of my favorite blogs, The Consumerist, about how Bank of America is using Twitter to resolve customers’ problems.

The bank has appointed an official BofA Twitter rep, David Knapp (screen name BofA_help) to “help, listen and learn from our customers.” Knapp handles inbound requests and scans Twitter for people talking about their problems with the financial services giant and reaches out to them.

One customer reported trying to contact Bank of America “a dozen different times and three different ways,” but one tweet to BofA_help put him in directly touch with executive customer service.

Another shared his story about how Bank of America helped fix his problem: “I got the fee I was disputing canceled, and they promised to send me a gift certificate. We'll see,” he said. “… if they keep up this level of customer service I might not switch banks when I move this spring.”

It’s early days yet, but the initial response to this social media experiment is very positive. The Consumerist reports: “If you're listening to the elevator music on the phone with Bank of America, why not shoot a tweet over to twitter.com/BofA_help? Maybe he'll solve your problem before you get off hold. It'll only cost you a few seconds and 140, or less, characters.”