Trading in wireless hotspots

Quote from nexx:

I guess you dont notice when you go to say www.bankofamerica.com www.paypal.com www.gmail.com www.yahoo.com www.tdameritrade.com www.thinkorswim.com www.interactivebrokers.com .... no need for me to go on... well when you go to the sites the address bar turns yellow and at the bottom right there's a lock that says 128bit encryption before you type anything in and before you hit the log in button so you are on a secure server. im not saying any encryption Cant be cracked it just take a good amount of time and effort to do so. but you are very much so on a secure server before you send your info out to the net. when you going to login to your account through your software platform you are connecting to a secure server, first your software pings the server to open a secure pipe to it then once the secure line is connected it sends the login info that all happens in the matter of milliseconds.

Understood, everyone from Ebay, Paypal, Betting sites to banks etc use the best security, but it's pretty basic to see what you enter. Here's a simple example.

http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...easy+it+is+to+hack+WEP+wireless?&search_type=

You can download much more sophisticated software than this and learn step by step basics to crack encryption in minutes but for the hot stuff you'll need to know someone. Hackers exchange ideas with other hackers but it can be a very tight lipped community because although the vast majority are harmless security breaking addicts, they know they are breaking the law.

A friend of mine hacked the personal files of the head of security for one of the largest telecom corporations in the world and then phoned him on his private personal mobile on a Friday night when he was in his local pub in London. They have a scrip they read out to say there is no threat to them or their network and point out the holes in the secutiry system. They tape the calls and spend the night laughing their heads off at the responses over a few drinks... well a lot of drinks.

Try searching hacking hotspots.
 
Quote from yoohoo:

Understood, everyone from Ebay, Paypal, Betting sites to banks etc use the best security, but it's pretty basic to see what you enter. Here's a simple example.

http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...easy+it+is+to+hack+WEP+wireless?&search_type=

You can download much more sophisticated software than this and learn step by step basics to crack encryption in minutes but for the hot stuff you'll need to know someone. Hackers exchange ideas with other hackers but it can be a very tight lipped community because although the vast majority are harmless security breaking addicts, they know they are breaking the law.

You're slightly confused. First, there is a big difference between SSL transmissions (such as what is used if you did online banking), and wireless encryption. If you were at a hotspot, they probably don't have wireless encryption anyways, so yes, all your traffic is out there for the taking (unless it's encrypted through SSL or something). The video you linked is about hacking WEP, which is a legacy technology that everyone knows is vulnerable. Also, they never used web sites with SSL. There's many replacements that are extremely difficult to crack.

Also, hackers love to exchange non-public vulnerabilities and tools. However, the best wireless hacking tools are actually well known about, free, and most are open source.

Regardless, there's a very easy solution. I have a hosting account that gives me more bandwidth than I could ever use, for a very reasonable price. At an insecure wireless hotspot, I run a SSH tunnel redirecting all my "important" outbound traffic through my server. It's now encrypted very well, and any SSL transmissions are encrypted twice.

If interested, here's a guide I've used in the past.
 
Back
Top