Safety of Wi_fi

[artistc 0]

I just read the topic of free wi-fi in Pattaya and I am curious about the safety. From all that I have read this practice has been described as dangerous. I am no expert on this and I would like to get the point of view from some one who is. I have always limited my note book use to so called secure sites at my hotel. Is the claim that the hotel sites is secured real? 33 days to take off

[joekicker 53]

Any danger has little to do with the source of the Internet. You have to secure the computer you use, with a firewall first of all plus other security systems. The REAL danger is that some axxhole will put something on your machine and let you function as a spam-bot, say. That can happen no matter whether you are on a secure circuit or a public Wi-Fi system. It is up to YOU to protect yourself, and also to realise that once you connect to the Internet on any computer at any time, your computer is instantly insecure.

 

But the imagine "danger" of most stories is that someone will get into your computer and find all the Swiss bank account numbers and the pictures of you with 7-year-old boys to use as blackmail against you. I think about 99.58% of people don't have all that exciting stuff than anyone would bother stealing.

 

One of my main personal security tactics is to make sure there is nothing on my computer worth stealing. That is, if you got all my information from all of my computers, it wouldn't affect my life negatively. You couldn't tap my bank account or use my credit cards, for example.

 

All of that said, there are MANY insecure things online, however, and as a columnist wrote recently the best guard is the software your parents gave you on your birthday.

[CincinnatiBengals 0]

I use online banking. I worry that when I enter my account number and password, someone is waiting to steal it. Then they can access my bank account and send my money to themselves. Would this be possible?

[joekicker 53]

I use online banking. I worry that when I enter my account number and password, someone is waiting to steal it. Then they can access my bank account and send my money to themselves. Would this be possible?

 

Online, anything is possible. But again, on YOUR computer, this can only happen if your own security is wanting (Internet cafes is a different threat level).

 

Online banking is pretty safe. You have to keep out the scum who want to hide in your computer and wait to steal your password/etc. A good firewall, as I said, is the first good step. Make sure your computer is clean, with adware/virus detectors -- because the threat there is that a rogue download or web page will plant a listening device.

 

1. this is rare. 2. A computer with a decent firewall (ZoneAlarm or something of that quality) and getting scanned with anti-adware and anti-virus programs is about as safe as anything can be while connected to the Internet.

 

Lots of people do what you want to do, in reasonable safety.

[Skygod 40]

I use online banking. I worry that when I enter my account number and password, someone is waiting to steal it. Then they can access my bank account and send my money to themselves. Would this be possible?

This would be the case whether you connected from home or via a free wi-fi hotspot.

 

I find it a little worrying that there are many people happily using technologies that they do not understand and therefore unable to determine the associated risk.

 

Over the Internet, it is possible for data packets being sent from a host to be captured. Whether it can be deciphered and be of use to someone is a different matter.

[prak 0]

I would be very wary of using any wireless connections for any sensitive activities. Free wireless is usually unencrypted (anybody nearby can "see" everything you do if they just listen) or low-grade encryption (can be cracked in near real-time with freely available online tools). Even the higher grade WPA wireless encryption can be easily cracked if you just sit nearby and gather enough packets, again using freely available tools and a little know-how.

 

Also keep in mind that wherever you use any connection, wireless or not, you are betting on the network administrator to not record your packets. With enough packets, even your high encryption ssl connections can be broken - but that takes time and is much more difficult than wireless cracking, pretty unlikely.

 

You are safest with a wired connection accessed from your own computer (internet cafe computers may have key-loggers that record everything you type, encryption doesn't help here), odds are pretty good that you will be safe.

 

I actually have a bank account that I use just for travel, that I put only my vacation money in. That way, if I have to access it from a risky spot, I may loose some of my vacation cash, but not my life savings.

 

/software engineer