Security when browsing the internet using laptop abroad

cepheus

Rather new to this, and relieved to have managed to log onto the hotel network at all. However, when I first logged on yersterday it said that the 'other users may be able to see my computer' or something like that. Is there anything I can do to make the connection more secure without losing the ability to connect?

The only saving grace is that the range is very limited and can only be accessed in the hotel lobby.

I am using Windows 2007 and IE9.

paddyrg

Public internet, especially free public internet, is always at risk. If you see a hotspot called "Cafe xyz free internet hotspot" when you go for a coffee at cafe xyz, it could well just be a cellphone bridging wireless and 3G networks acting as a local access point in order to man-in-the-middle attack your session. Yep, with the right phone and a bit of know-how, I could read your emails without too much of a headache.

I would say the best way to counteract this is to use a 3G dongle/mifi, at least your connection to your 3G network provider is less exposed than the public internet/wifi. Not free, but T-mo are trialing a £10/month all you can eat mifi deal, fantastic value.

cepheus

Trouble is this partly negates the point of taking a laptop abroad, what happens if I use https sites such as this,
https://your.egg.com/security/customer/login.aspx?URI=https://your.egg.com/customer/yourmoney.aspx
presumably egg won't blame me for being reckless if someone wipes my account?

Alternatively I could use the local communal wired connection rather than my personal laptop , but is this any better?

chunter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13665452

big problems with public wi-fi networks

Firesheep open source...

""The message of Firesheep," he told us," is sites like Facebook and pretty much anyone who has a site on the web where people log in and have any personal information need to use what's called https, which is a secure way to browse the web.""

tweeter

http://wirelessdefence.org/index.htm

HTH

Linbox

cepheus wrote: »

However, when I first logged on yersterday it said that the 'other users may be able to see my computer' or something like that. Is there anything I can do to make the connection more secure without losing the ability to connect?

I am using Windows 2007 and IE9.

I may be very wrong, but your laptop is not really at risk. Unless of course you download something (not the data you download via browsing) Windows 2007 - is this office? - which would not be relevant. IE9 is not known as the most secure.

Security considerations -
The data you transmit and recive is where you security falls flat on its face.

1. Make sure you have a good firewall and is set-up and working.
2. Make sure you have a good AntiVirus software and is set-up and working.
3. Change your browser to Firefox or Chrome.
4. You could run your browser in a sandbox (sandboxie) - yes even FF/Ch.
5. Do not connect to your bank or any thing else where you need to give ANY personal details, including usernames and passwords. This would include facebook ect - This would of course include any auto logins you may have - such as this forum, facebook, twiter ect
6. Common sense above all. most of the above applies to your home network.
7. Turn off sharing on any drives

Mardrew

I hope you don't mind me butting in to your thread but we are going to Austrailia for 3 weeks later on this year and we were thinking of taking our laptop or netbook with us as a means of keeping in touch with family and friends and also, maybe, to access our bank accounts to transfer money between accounts as necessary. This would be from either our hotel/apartments using their network or from hotspots whilst we are out and about. After reading through the posts on here I now feel worried about doing this. Can anyone give me any advice as to the best way to do these things? (Please keep it simple as, I too, am new to this.)

Many thanks.

cepheus

Its really someone being able to see the passwords is my main concern rather than hacking into my computer. Once someone has these they have all the time in the world.

OK let's pose the question in a different way, bearing in mind that no computer communicating to the internet is safe which is the least risk option bearing in mind the setup I have now.

1) Check my accounts using my private laptop using the hotel wi-fi

2) Check my accounts using a public wired computer

3) Don't check my accounts at all for two weeks (bearing in mind I am using credit cards etc abroad this poses its own non-computer risk)

bluesnake

anywhere where there is a concentration of of travellers i.e hotels/travel lodges/airports etc are just lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

Firstly, protect your laptop. the best is a boot up linux cd (or usb) distro like puppy or ubuntu. Returnil should work too, if you do not want to use a boot cd, but that leaves the holes in windows still open.

Secondly, you should communicate to a secure destination, like your home computer via a secure tunnel. Yes, this will mean leaving your home computer on.

Thirdly, if you so not do the second item above, you could do worse than using LOGMEIN, or my favourite TEAMVIEWER and manipulate your home computer.
___________________
Say you visit McD's burgers. You know and see the wifi is ssid mcd_wifi. McD will probably use standard equipment - around 100mw strength router. Now old bluesnake enters the room with his laptop bag with a 1w usb wifi transmitter connected to my laptop whos ssid is also called mcd_wifi. Also my laptop is connected to my mobile so that you do get an internet connection, however I could also connect it to the real mcd_wifi network. I will sit in he middle of the customer area (a bit away from McD's ariel) and harvest what eventually comes along. Very few will be any the wiser, even in a hotel lobby. Tunnelling, encryption and connection to a secure source is an answer.

---

Hacking the computer can be more worrying than one-off password capturing. Dr X stayed over for one night at a major Heathrow airport hotel. In the few hours of stay his laptop had acquired a keystroke recorder that emailed all captured stuff out. It captured all his CC information, secure codes, passwords, sites visited, flight information, sites surfed, change of passwords, etc. It was a 'gift' that just keeps giving. Also they had installed a few different ways of gaining back door access to his laptop. It stayed undetected for about 3 months, and the only reason it was found was that he got a new laptop and wanted old stuff to be transferred.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Ideally you should always hardwire when abroad.. I got sent to Italy for work last month and they only had wireless in the hotel so there was no chance of me getting any work done at night as i do not trust wifi hotspots whatsoever in any place when working.

Web surfing is fine but not work.

marksmith12

Well, definitely it is a big issue that it is un-secure if you use your laptop abroad though WiFi and other sources, as they do not have any firewall or guard to save your packets data.

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