Protect yourself online

[vipra]

It's getting increasingly easy for people to intercept your internet activity when you're on WiFi at truckstops, hotels and coffee shops. They can read your password when you log into your bank account, for example. Go here AnchorFree and download their free Hotspot Shield to protect yourself.

[Turtle]

Most WiFi networks at places like truck stops and hotels will have 2, 3, 4 or more access points on different channels, and whichever access point gives the strongest signal relative to your laptop is the one you'll connect through. I can pull into a truck stop parking lot, say, a Flying J parking lot, and then configure my laptop to appear, in every way that matters, as an access point on the Flying J network. I can then, indeed, configure my laptop to actually be a Flying J access point.

People log onto the Flying J network, with all of their activity, logins and passwords included, passing right through my computer. The Hotspot Shield will not prevent this, as the VPN created will be between the other laptop and the WiFi access point, in this case, me. The Hotspot Shield will prevent 3rd party over-the-air snooping, of data monitoring, but it will not prevent a true interception as in the case of Access Point spoofing. You access the site (me), turn on VPN, and you're off and surfing securely (secure from everyone else but me hehe).

Configuring a laptop to be an access point is not as simple as it may sound, but then again, it's pretty darned easy if you know how. It all depends how much spoofing, and stealing, you want to do. Having a VPN, such as Hotspot Shield, is a good idea. Just don't get too much of a false sense of security from it.

Without the Hotspot Shield installed and operating, when you log onto a secure site, like a bank, the connection is https, and is secure from 3rd party snooping, anyway. The https is essentially the same as a secure VPN tunnel. On sites that are not https, but are http, no such secure tunnel exists, and that's where Hotspot Shield will create one to protect you from 3rd part snooping. Fact is, there are very few sites on the Internet that require a login, password or credit card number that are not https sites. On those sites Hotspot Shield gives no additional security. On non-secure http sites, you'll get the additional security, but then again it's not really needed on those types of sites.

[dcalien]

I bought a Sprint wireless card. I Hope the Sprint people were right about it not having such vulnerabilities as wifi.

[Rocketman]

I was wondering the same thing Dave. How about it Turtle? Are the Sprint/At&T/Verizon etc. access cards as vulnerable as the the truckstop wifi's ?


Thanks, Rocketman

[Turtle]

I was wondering the same thing Dave. How about it Turtle? Are the Sprint/At&T/Verizon etc. access cards as vulnerable as the the truckstop wifi's ?

No, they're not. When you log on to a truck stop, motel, Panera Bread, wherever, you are logging on to their network, and those can be relatively easily spoofed. All you need to do is create an access point. Those types of connections are WiFi.

The cell phone companies don't use WiFi, they use their cell phone network, and it's much harder to spoof. You log on to the network and it's the same as making a phone call, and it's not so easy to spoof a cell tower and cell network. Granted, it's wireless, quite literally radio, so anyone can intercept the signal (as illegal as it is), but they can't so easily re-route the signal like you can with WiFi. And with the security inherently built in to cell phone aircards (essentially a VPN), intercepted data signals are rendered useless gobbledegook for the most part.

[Rocketman]

Very good info here. That in itself is enough to convince me that I need an aircard for my laptop.

Thanks Turtle