On Wednesday 24 December 2008 17:06:48 Les Mikesell wrote:
Anne Wilson wrote:
Typically SSL secured sites will at least keep your login credentials safe. However, someone can still see where you're going by sniffing your traffic.
That's not too much of a concern, if they can't read the actual packets.
If you're very concerned, setup an OpenVPN tunnel that routes all of your traffic through it. Then, the only thing they'll see from the start is an SSL connection to somewhere, and that's it.
That's probably the next step, then, but it sounds as though I needn't worry too much. Thanks for answering
Your main worry on an open network is that someone would hack into your system via ssh password-guessing or some remote vulnerability. Wireless doesn't change this much except that there can be people you don't expect connected with no additional firewall protection.
I'm not worried that the passphrase will be guessed, and I'm completely aware of social engineering techniques. Vulnerabilities are something else - but keeping my system up to date is a reasonable precaution. I know that some poor soul gets caught on day1 of a vulnerability being known - I've forgotten the name for this - but that's just something that I have to accept. Do all I can, then stop worrying.
If someone gains root access to your system they can log unencrypted keystrokes before the web browser encrypts them.
But they have to get in first. I'm reasonably confident that they won't - accepting that no-one can ever be 100% certain.
In the past I have bought time on hotel systems rather than use a laptop on a public network for this job, but if you consider that an hotel employee could be a security hole, you are really no better off.
Anne