My "3" MI FI, is it safe? (1 Viewer)

[Welsh girl]

I have a MI FI with the "3" network and I know WI FI in mcdonalds and hotels etc are not safe to access bank details but is your own MI FI broadcasting WI FI safe , I use MI FI to access MI FI with phones and pc so would like to know this is a safe way of using online banking, can anyone access your account?
I have an access code that i use to access the MI FI.
Any help would be appreciated

 

[W18BLA]

Yes it is safe in a word. The problem with place like McDonalds is they are Open Networks so everyone can have access which means they can see others on the network thats how they are not secure, your wifi is a secure personal network just the same as using your mobile phone etc.

Craig

 

[Gromett]

Providing you use a decent level of encryption on the connection you should be fine. I am not sure what the Mifi supports?

WEP is crackable in minutes now. Never use this mode.
WPA TKIP mode should be a minimum but preferably WPA AES

If your device supports WPA2-AES then you are totally safe (For now)

Karl

PS: use as long and as random a password as you can (upto 63 characters) and don't use a common word for the SSID as this is used as a salt for the encryption. Using an 8 character readily usable password with a normal word for the SSID will allow the hacker to use rainbow tables to quickly hack you.

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[activecampers]

Guys

Such duff information!

You are mixing up two distinct bits of technology.

WEP/WPA and Open WiFi - simply means any data between you and the access point is encrypted or not and if it can be intercepted. Open and WEP yes it can be read easily, WPA not so. But a physical connection, e.g. in the office, at home, can also be interecepted (actually easier) - but so what? Indeed, even if access point is WPA, the next cable out of the router can be intercepted as well as any router down the line.

If you enter a username/password on a normal (un-padlocked) web page, or access POP or FTP then the username and password can be sniffed. Always will be.

HOWEVER, banks use SSL encryption that encrypts data between YOUR BROWSER and THE BANK. So regadless if you are on an open wifi or not, the data is encoded and even if it is read in its entitrity by a hacker then it cannot be read.

So as long as:-
1 - You trust your laptop (e.g. it has no viruses)
2 - The website you are going to is SSL (e.g. has a padlock in the browser)

Then it is safe to use - even over an open connection.

(NEVER user an Internet Cafe PC as you can't trust other machines as they may have something installed that, for example, records screen and key strokes)

Advanced note:-
If your email is POP/SMTP with basic authentication, change to SSL/TLS (encrypted) formats so the email passwords are encrypted. IMO this is the biggest risk as a lot of people use simply POP passwords which are nicely transmitted...


edit:
1 - As such, to answer your question with MiFi, it doesn't matter!

2 - Anyone who disagrees or wants more info let me know, and also note on this topic at least, this is one of my areas of expertise

 

[activecampers]

FYI

As I'm in bed, wife sleeping, and it was on my to-do list anyway, here is a more detailed article with pictures

http://www.doyourdream.co.uk/2011/07/is-open-unsecured-wifi-safe-to-use/

Save me typing the same thing ever few weeks lol!:thumb:


edit: She is now awake, so I have more interesting things to attend to!

 

[Welsh girl]

Thanks folks for your input,special thanks to:active campers, sorry to keep you from your eherm morning aerobics

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[Gromett]

ActiveCampers
You are of course correct. I deal daily with security but from the other end and I made assumptions which directed my answer.
I was talking from the point of view will the wifi point itself be secure. I assumed everyone knew that https:// protocol was used for accessing bank websites so was secure.

My fault for not reading the original post closely enough and having my headset somewhere else.
.
My answer was aimed at ensuring that the mifi box was secure and couldn't be used by others for nefarious purposes.

I personally use a VPN to one of my servers for accessing sensitive sites.
So again my head was in a different space when viewing the question.

I apologise for giving non relevant information although the information would have been valid if the question was different oh:

PS: I am aware of the difference between authentication, authorisation and encryption so my answer was doubly silly

 

[hilldweller]

so my answer was doubly silly

For the honour of FUN are you going to do the decent thing and fall on your dongle ?

 

[Jaws]

For the honour of FUN are you going to do the decent thing and fall on your dongle ?

And if you do we wanna see proof !!!

Link Removed

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[motorhomer]

I was delighted to see the post from activecampers. All too often you read that you should not use wifi in public places, such as macdomalds or campsites, for banking as its not secure. There is a lot of misinformation about this. As activecampers said, if its in your own machine and the site uses encryption from the browser (is its https not http) then even if it is intercepted it cannot be read. If on an open network (or any other network for that matter) it is wise to protect yourself by using firewalls etc, but this is a different issue.

I too was in the computer industry before retiring, and was particularly concerned with security for a number of years.