Open wireless and security

Voyager2002

I am staying in a flat that has been lent to me (in Paris) and am receiving clear wireless signals from several nearby networks. One of these is not encrypted and so I have a good internet connection.

Should I use this for on-line banking? How great is the risk of theft of passwords, CC numbers, etc?

(This is a private block of flats rather than a tourist complex, so not a natural place for fraudsters to wait.)

wendym

It might be worth checking where you stand legally in France:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2154329,00.html

And I'm not sure that anywhere is 'not a natural place for fraudsters', but I'm twitchy, having recently been on the receiving ebd of credit card fraud.

espresso

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I am staying in a flat that has been lent to me (in Paris) and am receiving clear wireless signals from several nearby networks. One of these is not encrypted and so I have a good internet connection.

Should I use this for on-line banking? How great is the risk of theft of passwords, CC numbers, etc?

(This is a private block of flats rather than a tourist complex, so not a natural place for fraudsters to wait.)

This open network may have been deliberately left open to attract idiots like you!

:rolleyes:

Voyager2002

espresso wrote: »

This open network may have been deliberately left open to attract idiots like you!
:rolleyes:

Whatever happened to "please be nice to all money-savers"?

And if I were an idiot, would I have asked this question before sending private information?

Voyager2002

wendym wrote: »

It might be worth checking where you stand legally in France:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2154329,00.html

And I'm not sure that anywhere is 'not a natural place for fraudsters', but I'm twitchy, having recently been on the receiving ebd of credit card fraud.

This is a city where most parks have free wi-fi, provided by the local government. I don't think the British obsession with private property and making the punter pay for everything extends across the channel.

espresso

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Whatever happened to "please be nice to all money-savers"?

And if I were an idiot, would I have asked this question before sending private information?

Theft is theft, you must realise that and your post proves the exception to the rule that there are stupid questions posted.

wendym

I've been jinxed by this - just got back to find a message about someone using my credit card fraudulently, so here we go again...................

Conor_3

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Whatever happened to "please be nice to all money-savers"?

And if I were an idiot, would I have asked this question before sending private information?

You connected before asking. Sometimes people set up open Wifi as honeypots. The morons connect and then basically you can run any exploit/hack against the machines connected to the Wifi hotspot as you could on a wired LAN.

It's not just the risk of having internet passwords stolen. On a wired LAN, I was able to access any shares on any Windows PC, including the hidden system shares, through a Linux application. If you've got File and Printer Sharing enabled, they can get in, even if you've a firewall up.

sinizterguy

Use it if you must - but do not use for sensitive transactions.

And make sure when you log in to your email etc, its through a secure connection (https) and not normal http.

Gmail for example has default login via https. But not hotmail or yahoo -> you have to click through to the secure one. The default ones in these two are sent in plain text and makes getting your details easy whereas those via https are encrypted and makes it much more difficult if not practically impossible.

I just would not use it for banking/credit cards/purchases etc ... If any part of the information is sent in plain text, it would leave you open to fraud.

espresso

sinizterguy wrote: »

Use it if you must - but do not use for sensitive transactions.
.
.
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I just would not use it for banking/credit cards/purchases etc ... If any part of the information is sent in plain text, it would leave you open to fraud.

Not good advice!

sinizterguy

espresso wrote: »

Not good advice!

Which part would that be then ?

Edit - I see you are one of the "theft" clan.

What if the owner had intentionally left it open to share ?