Public wifi, vpn, personal info

book12

When using a public wifi, it is recommended that a vpn should be used. If i enter my login details of my email account and mobile banking, would the server i connect to through the vpn record my login credentials (i.e. username and password)?

kwikbreaks

It could. Do you trust your VPN provider? That said most banking requires more than a simple user/password login.

A VPN should protect you from bogus "free wifi" hotspots or packet sniffing on genuine ones but you need to trust the provider. Free proxies and VPNs to bypass national blocks are not risking anything much unless you use them to log in to sensitive sites such as your webmail.

I_have_spoken

Neither the wi-fi hot-spot or the VPN server should have visibility of your username/password when the banks web-site is using HTTPS

If in doubt, click on the padlock icon on your web-browser and get info on the security.

SinDinero

Do some 'internet banks' not 'block' vpn software (for security reasons)?

Goldbug

book12 wrote: »

When using a public wifi, it is recommended that a vpn should be used. If i enter my login details of my email account and mobile banking, would the server i connect to through the vpn record my login credentials (i.e. username and password)?

If it's https then no, no one on the WiFi or the VPN should be able to see your login credential.

SinDinero wrote: »

Do some 'internet banks' not 'block' vpn software (for security reasons)?

I've accessed my online banking through a VPN and they haven't but don't know if this is just particular to one bank or all of them.

SinDinero

Goldbug wrote: »

I've accessed my online banking through a VPN and they haven't but don't know if this is just particular to one bank or all of them.

I know some block the use of debit and credit cards as it happened to me recently. I had to turn it off and try again and make my purchase again (that was a UK vpn using a UK bank card).

I also know that sites like BBC have now blocked vpn software - as I found out when on holiday in the summer. No MOTD.

I'm not sure if there is a way around this.