Open WiFi - do you use it?
-
That was really my question. I have spent a lot of time visiting hospitals this year, so I generally connect to their Wifi, and then immediately connect to my VPN. In my thinking that is pretty secure, and I do not worry about security after that.
I was having an argument with someone (not @Dashrender) who said they still don't do banking this way, which I thought was crazy. That is DOUBLE encryption.
In theory, if you connect to open Wifi, but have a firewall and use a site with HTTPS, you should be safe, right?
The VPN just locks that down even more.
Or am I nuts?
-
@BRRABill said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
That was really my question. I have spent a lot of time visiting hospitals this year, so I generally connect to their Wifi, and then immediately connect to my VPN. In my thinking that is pretty secure, and I do not worry about security after that.
I was having an argument with someone (not @Dashrender) who said they still don't do banking this way, which I thought was crazy. That is DOUBLE encryption.
In theory, if you connect to open Wifi, but have a firewall and use a site with HTTPS, you should be safe, right?
The VPN just locks that down even more.
Or am I nuts?
i agree with you.
Have him describe a situation in which he is willing to do online banking.. then compare the two.
-
@BRRABill said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
That was really my question. I have spent a lot of time visiting hospitals this year, so I generally connect to their Wifi, and then immediately connect to my VPN. In my thinking that is pretty secure, and I do not worry about security after that.
I was having an argument with someone (not @Dashrender) who said they still don't do banking this way, which I thought was crazy. That is DOUBLE encryption.
In theory, if you connect to open Wifi, but have a firewall and use a site with HTTPS, you should be safe, right?
The VPN just locks that down even more.
Or am I nuts?
You will run into the type of people who feel like unless they hand built each piece of the network, it isn't secure enough for them. In my opinion, I would be with you. Firewall, VPN, Secured wifi, call it good. There are many that will disagree.
-
SSL is secure or it isn't. If it's not secure don't use it anywhere. Don't shop online, bank, etc. Along that note, what banking site is not using SSL? It would be crazy not to.
Unless the AP has device isolation on, checking the box for promiscuous mode in WireShark is pretty easy.
What difference does it make how many people are connected. Do you walk in to Starbucks and size up the geek level of people sitting there?
-
Use SSL and move along. Anything more is a paranoia pipe dream.
@BRRABill Are you using a company VPN and have full tunnel enabled? This means you are abusing your company's internet service. Do they know that?
-
@Mike-Davis said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
SSL is secure or it isn't. If it's not secure don't use it anywhere. Don't shop online, bank, etc. Along that note, what banking site is not using SSL? It would be crazy not to.
Unless the AP has device isolation on, checking the box for promiscuous mode in WireShark is pretty easy.
What difference does it make how many people are connected. Do you walk in to Starbucks and size up the geek level of people sitting there?
Well, yes I do, but that's not for this purpose. More for how much I do or do not want to stick around. (Tongue-in-cheek)
It's a factor of adding a password to wifi ("Secure Wifi" Now) keeps out the random people. In theory, and in most cases where we talking about using secure wifi, at least in my experience, you have more of an idea who is on the network. So, familiarity I guess moreso than quantity.
-
@FiyaFly said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
It's a factor of adding a password to wifi ("Secure Wifi" Now) keeps out the random people. In theory, and in most cases where we talking about using secure wifi, at least in my experience, you have more of an idea who is on the network. So, familiarity I guess moreso than quantity.
The day I can tell by looking at a person that they can hack a SSL tunnel will be the day I start wearing a cape.
-
@Mike-Davis said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
What's the concern? Man in the middle? If you're doing anything secure, there should be a secure tunnel anyways. Even if you are on "secure" wifi, someone else on the "secure wifi" can still see your traffic.
My big concern is you can't verify its actually what it says. I can set up an AP with the name Xfinity and anyone who has used the free Xfinity wifi will connect to me. With a laptop it's not a big deal but phone developers are lazy. You have no idea what traffic is coming from the apps. Troy hunt did a video on his tablet where he installed some magazine app that sent like 1.5G of unencrypted data from his device.
-
I use HTTPS which is a form of VPN.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
I use HTTPS which is a form of VPN.
Ah, that old line.
That's on the top 10 "Things SAM Says" list I maintain privately.
-
@BRRABill said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
@scottalanmiller said in Open WiFi - do you use it?:
I use HTTPS which is a form of VPN.
Ah, that old line.
That's on the top 10 "Things SAM Says" list I maintain privately.
LOL, there should be a thread just for that.
-
I only perform my non-secure bank transactions on public wifi...
Fastest possible internet connection ever! So fast in fact that no one can steal my private data...
