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Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#61

Post by theBobMcCormick »

drinian wrote: post #29
theBobMcCormick wrote: post #23

I guess my question would be: What additional threat do you thing public wifi poses, as opposed to any other internet access? IMHO, you have to assume that any unencrypted traffic over the internet could be sniffed, etc. The only additional threats I can see would be threats against your PC directly, rather than your traffic. Am I wrong?

It's much easier for an attacker with few resources to go fishing for passwords, etc. over an open WiFi connection than it is for that person to somehow gain physical access to an ISP and install a packet sniffer. So, the number of people who could conceivably be eavesdropping goes from a few (unscrupulous IT workers and law enforcement) to very many (everyone who can figure out a WiFi packet sniffer).

Small number of eavesdroppers, but also more sophisticated and dangerous ones. :-)

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#62

Post by StavrosK »

w1ntermute wrote: post #42
mukyu wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSH_VPN

That seems like a lot of work. Not that I'm opposed to doing it if necessary, but an automated solution (even if it were graphical) would be wonderful. In fact, it would be great if Wicd could somehow handle all this.

There doesn't appear to be a network-manager SSH VPN plugin, which is a shame. I would love to be able to easily create a VPN with any of my servers...

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#63

Post by tallanvor »

Hates_ wrote: post #50
petdog wrote: post #44

Other than ssh tunneling, I tried http://vyprvpn.com when it was offered together with giganews, and it was pretty fast, if a bit costly.

I'm using http://vyprvpn.com as it comes free with my Giganews account.

Same here. Works fine when I'm on the road. I suppose I could setup my own vpn through my server, but since this already meets my needs, why bother?

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#64

Post by tomfakes »

Here's a different approach to this problem - Take your home network with you!

I recently signed up for Clearwire's CLEAR service. They have a MiFi component that does "4G" with fallback to 3G if necessary. This gives me up to about 3MBs, with portability (up to 3 hours on battery). There is no data limit for "4G", and you get 5GB per month on the 3G fallback network.

Anywhere I travel inside the US, I'm using my home network, and isolated from public networks.

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#65

Post by theBobMcCormick »

fragmede wrote: post #46
theBobMcCormick wrote: post #23

I guess my question would be: What additional threat do you thing public wifi poses, as opposed to any other internet access? IMHO, you have to assume that any unencrypted traffic over the internet could be sniffed, etc. The only additional threats I can see would be threats against your PC directly, rather than your traffic. Am I wrong?

Yes. For an active attack, see airpwn - http://www.evilscheme.org/defcon/ If you think that's rather benign, consider the ssl cert checking flaw ( http://hackaday.com/2009/07/29/black-hat-2009-breaking-ssl-w... ). Put the two together, with a bit of paranoia, and the result is I never surf unsecured wifi without some sort of protection.

I guess I don't so much disagree with the idea of being careful on an unsecure public wifi, as I am concerned that so many people seem to think they only have to concerned about the unsecured wifi, not all the other hops on their connection. You know what I mean?

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#67

Post by PStamatiou »

I use a simple OpenVPN or L2TP/IPSec provider + client app on OS X. Minimal setup and I can switch it on/off easily. I reviewed the one I use earlier this year, though this it now outdated because at the time they didn't offer OpenVPN and that was my biggest beef with it: http://paulstamatiou.com/how-toreview-surf-securely-with-vyp...

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#69

Post by symesc »

I use Witopia from Canada.

In addition to helping secure my connection to the Internet at all times, it enables access to online services that are otherwise unavailable.

These services include BBC iPlayer out of the UK, and Hulu and other streaming services from the US, like sporting events.

I have found Witopia to be extremely reliable and fast.

I recommend their service.

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure yourself on public WiFi?

#70

Post by fragmede »

theBobMcCormick wrote: post #65
fragmede wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. For an active attack, see airpwn - http://www.evilscheme.org/defcon/ If you think that's rather benign, consider the ssl cert checking flaw ( http://hackaday.com/2009/07/29/black-hat-2009-breaking-ssl-w... ). Put the two together, with a bit of paranoia, and the result is I never surf unsecured wifi without some sort of protection.

I guess I don't so much disagree with the idea of being careful on an unsecure public wifi, as I am concerned that so many people seem to think they only have to concerned about the unsecured wifi, not all the other hops on their connection. You know what I mean?

Oh absolutely. And heres why: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/08/revealed-the-in/ . In short, the researchers demonstrated that they could poison the upstream provider for Defcon's internet, such that all Defcon traffic went first through their server, before reaching the internet at large.
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