Sony Store guy tells me to go live in a cave. (long w/pics + a Q)

[Howard Beale]

I'm pretty sure that I am much older than the average 2p2er and I'll let you know that I bought my first computer (iMac) only a few years ago. A lot of people had been telling me to get one but I didn't really need one and was actually pleased that I was the only one without one but I came across an Apple store and made an impulse buy. So now I can use a computer to a small extent and I've gotten to thinking that maybe I should get a new one. There is a brand new Sony Store at the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, AZ. I wander in and end up looking at their VAIO notebooks and fiddling with them to see if I can work them at all which I can a little bit. A salesman who looks 15 to me comes over and wants to help me so I ask what's the difference between the $1,200 model and the $2,700 model which he blah, blah, blahs about and I don't really follow too much except that the expensive one has a built in wireless thing with an antenna.

This brought up a question that I've wondered about so I ask him what's up with the wireless internet stuff when it comes to security so I ask how would I protect my passwords if I use the thing in a WiFi area and he tells me that the connection is secure. I mention that I've read of people who sit outside places like that with electronic gizmos and try to pick up people's passwords and then empty out their bank accounts which I don't know if that's true so I figure I'll ask the Sony Store geek-guy. Here's the conversation, pretty much:

'Well, if you're going to worry about every little thing you might as well live in a cave far underground and not ever come out into the world. You should be away from people who might try to do something to you.'

'I don't think that my bank account password is *every little thing* and I just want to know if somebody can intercept my wireless communications.'

'There is always the possibility of somebody doing something with electronics to put you in jeapordy and if you're going to worry about it you should just go live in a cave like I said.'

'You forgot to mention that I would also really need a security system



claymore mines



and a robot machine gun.




And then I asked him if he actually managed to ever sell anything to anyone and he went away, thank goodness.

I'm still left with the question and I know I'll get the answer here:

What's up with this wireless stuff? Can you send passwords over the internet this way without them getting intercepted or not? If you can is there any special precautions that you have to take?

Thanks for the help.

[guids]

short answer:

people can intercept anything you do over wireless net, but th likelyhood of you getting screwed as far as identity theft, etc, is fairly low.

[asofel]

Long story short: of course you have to be careful when using technology. The issue with wireless is that so many people never even put a password on their network. First bad step. Second, there were issues with how secure the earlier wireless protocols were. These days though, if you password protect your network, keep a firewall on your computer, use secure connections and just generally dont' act like an idiot, i wouldn't worry about buying machine guns :-)

[n.s.]

Connecting to the internet wirelessly only makes you slightly less secure than using a wired connection. In many types of networks (like a large ethernet network like you'd find at most offices and in some residential setups), every piece of data that is send out actually goes to every computer on the network, it's just that most machines will ignore data that's not meant for it. With a "packet sniffer" it's trivial to see all the data that everyone is sending around. So having a wired connection does very little to make you more secure.

The good news, though, is that anything important like a bank password is going to use encryption, and the encryption is very, very hard to break. This is true whether the encrypted data is sent wirelessly or not. So going wireless doesn't increase your security risk by any significant amount.

The more common risk for wireless networks that people will find your signal and steal bandwith. This is easy to stop if you password-protect your network, but most people don't bother.

[2/325Falcon]

Howard,

I can't answer the wireless question, but I can recommend that you daisy chain your Claymores together if you decide to go the cave route. Hope this helps.

[zomg]

[guids]

[ QUOTE ]
Connecting to the internet wirelessly only makes you slightly less secure than using a wired connection. In many types of networks (like a large ethernet network like you'd find at most offices and in some residential setups), every piece of data that is send out actually goes to every computer on the network, it's just that most machines will ignore data that's not meant for it. With a "packet sniffer" it's trivial to see all the data that everyone is sending around. So having a wired connection does very little to make you more secure.

The good news, though, is that anything important like a bank password is going to use encryption, and the encryption is very, very hard to break. This is true whether the encrypted data is sent wirelessly or not. So going wireless doesn't increase your security risk by any significant amount.

The more common risk for wireless networks that people will find your signal and steal bandwith. This is easy to stop if you password-protect your network, but most people don't bother.

[/ QUOTE ]


The difference with wireless and wired connections though, is that on a wired network it is a little harder to pull a man in teh middle attack to see the passwords in unencrypted form for a bank etc, with a wireless net, it is much easier.

[Howard Beale]

[ QUOTE ]


[/ QUOTE ]

This is very good and I can't do it. I think I'll hire a geek to teach me how.

[guids]

It actually took me a few seconds to realize you didn't draw a dirty picture.

[StevieG]

guids and n.s. are giving good advice.

I will add to what n.s. said though. Your bank, brokerage firm, reputable e-commerce sites, Gmail, etc, are all using encryption (you'll see a padlock in your browser) when you are handing off a password to them.

However many other sites where you use a password, including 2+2, are not encrypted when you hand off the password.

Therefore if you use the same password everywhere then wireless might be very dangerous for you.

I suggest not using the same password everywhere, and certainly not using the same password for unencrypted sites that you use for encrypted sites with information you really want to protect.