[P1] OT: security issues with wifi (was: anyone know any good call by call dialup ISPs in California?)

[Richard McKay]

Jack Rodgers wrote the following:

>> Sorry to tell you this Jack, but even with PGP keys,
> 
> Hey, I'm the guy saying that using open wifi hotspots is not safe
> regardless of the self-serving moralizing people are putting forward...
> 
>> Besides the wifi is only slightly different than the standard cable
>> you are
>> using...the transmission is by different means but the information is
>> still
>> being sent from A to B...and therefore potentially available for
>> access...
> 
> Exactly what I said about wifi...

Not sure that you understood what I was trying to say so here goes...

I understood that you felt wifi is not secure but normal ethernet/modem
connections were secure.

Using this statement I was just trying to say that ethernet/modem
connections are only slightly safer if you use *all* the encrypting power
available  (ie 256 aes ssh connections) to you...otherwise it is no
better/worse than wifi...many people think that because it is wireless it is
automatically not as secure...which is not true.  Most people don't use half
the measures available in wifi or standard connections to help keep their
privacy...or are limited because the login does not allow such
connections...It was only this winter that one of my mail providers allowed
ssh'ing in to get my mail...therefore anyone who really wanted to know what
I was doing has my passwords by now and realised I have nothing of
interest...

Besides, a little security trade-off is worth it in my view if open access
to the web (such wifi hot spots) allows more people direct access to
information and promotes an exchange of ideas, conversation and acceptance
of other ways of doing things...We may then stop repeating history and
mistakes...

Cheers,

Richard
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