Caution: Use WiFi hotspots with care: someone might be snooping
A recent article in the New York Times demonstrated just how insecure it can be to use a WiFi ‘hotspot’ - just like the ones you might find in Ronaldsway Airport or Strand Streets’ Java Coffee lounge.
First the bad news:
…Jon sat a few feet
away with his PowerBook; I fired up my Fujitsu laptop and began doing
some e-mail and Web surfing.That’s all it took. He turned his laptop around to reveal all of this:
* Every copy of every e-mail message I sent *and* received.
* A list of the Web sites I visited.
* Even, incredibly, the graphics that had appeared on the Web sites I had visited…
Jon used a program called a “packet sniffer” to capture the data being broadcast by the laptop - these programs are widely available and can be very sophisticated.
The good news is that by taking some basic precautions, you can use WiFi hotspots in a reasonably secure manner and the full article lists these in some detail.
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