Public WiFi hotspots are notorious for being the playgrounds of snoops.If you ever use
Apple devices on an open network, you'll want to take a look at
Cloak, which uses VPN tech to keep your data safe.
Cloak is a response to hacker tools like Firesheep and Reaver, which can snag important data while you're shopping from the comfort of your local coffee shop on your iPad,
iPhone, or
MacBook. The way to foil hackers is to use a
VPN to protect your connection. Cloak uses VPN tech, but it's designed to be simple and unobtrusive.For example, although Cloak uses a variety of servers, it chooses the best server for you in the background.

An interesting twist to Cloak's story is that the security service was cooked up by three former
Microsoft employees. Now with Bourgeois Bits, the Microsoft vets are tapping their experience making Microsoft products for Mac.
Free to light users, Cloak makes its money from people spend a lot of time on unprotected networks. The free plan covers two hours of protected connectivity (or 1GB of data) per month. Moving up to the first paid plan gets you 20GB of data per month (with no time restrictions) for $8 and the top plan offers 50GB for $15.
Joshua Gulick
Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to
Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote
CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for
Smart Computing Magazine. A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for
HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.