You do know that all monitors made after 2003 were bidirectional, right? It is our little joke that we make a small camera-looking thing in some models to make humans think that is how we watch them...
Posted on 07/25/2011 5:58:54 PM PDT by decimon
When you log on to a Wi-Fi network with a laptop computer, how much info about yourself do you reveal? I don't mean what you reveal to a cracker/hacker but to, say, the network administrator.
I'm not asking about porn or anything illegal but normal net surfing. I ask because of the proliferation of Wi-Fi hotspots. Some local government entities, like schools, can have unsecured access, you just log on.
Help wanted ping.
Depends on the network and the laptop. Anything going over the network is easily intercepted unless its encrypted. If your laptop isn’t configured properly they can gain access to your disk drive.
Say you log into email and read them. They’ve captured your login/password and the contents of the email.
All wireless networks can be hacked using free software.
Oh, please. You certainly are. Don't be perpetratin'.
Depends on the network and the laptop. Anything going over the network is easily intercepted unless its encrypted. If your laptop isn’t configured properly they can gain access to your disk drive.
Say you log into email and read them. They’ve captured your login/password and the contents of the email.
All wireless networks can be hacked using free software.
Ping.
It all depends on your setup, and theirs.
If you want complete anonymity, a fresh iPod Touch, laptop or unregistered Droid wouldn’t have anything to share that was too useful. (MAC ID, browser info, etc.)
Many of these hotspots have a long disclaimer that requires you to click on something. That something may or may not be poking around. Frankly, the folks at the local Burger King or Howard Johnson’s don’t have anything terribly sophisticated.
You could set up a virtualized OS on a laptop, log in with that, and wipe it regularly... that would be quite safe.
Download a linux distro called Tails , install it onto a thumb drive, make sure to decide if you want a persistent storage partition on the thumb drive or not from the start.
General problems of getting Linux drivers for your laptop apply.
Plus the fact that at a public WiFi location you are in public. Besides eyewitnesses there are all those security cameras.
How much info I reveal about myself depends on how good looking the girl sitting next to me is.
You do know that all monitors made after 2003 were bidirectional, right? It is our little joke that we make a small camera-looking thing in some models to make humans think that is how we watch them...
>>How much info I reveal about myself depends on how good looking the girl sitting next to me is<<
I assume an inverse proportion of real data to her good looks?
At an open, unsecured WIFI spot, everything you send can be sniffed - basically all your email, browsing, etc.
Best to connect to a VPN first, then do all your other transactions - that way everything is encrypted before it goes over the WIFI network.
This is why large companies insist their employees use VPN at these wireless places. Whether you would want to set up a home VPN depends on your skill level.
Well gee for starters, your MAC address, the make and model of the accessing device, all stored log on info, all browser access while your logged on to that wireless network. If we flip a couple of software switches we can monitor all the traffic on your assigned IP address...some encrypted some not. It’s like trusting Google... be afraid... be very afraid
The whole thing is inversely proportioned, especially when my wife is next to me.
The noise you now hear is the sound of a bump welling up on my head.
Don’t buy any thing online at a hotspot, just read Free Republic.
Your Mac address would be exposed to anyone that wants to log it, which cross references you to home.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.