The only financial stuff that gets done gets done at home and with a
wire running to the router. The laptop is set not to automatically
connect with anything and I don't connect to a hotel network without
getting the network name from the desk.
Chuck Norcutt
On 1/17/2014 1:10 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
> David wrote good stuff there which I totally agree with.
>
> There is one thing that you are not addressing when you think of
> routers protecting. A router's primary form of protection (firewall)
> is through NAT. But that's like locking the door to your car but
> leaving the windows down. It only protects you from Blonde Jokes.
>
> The greater risk, and why a computer-based firewall is important, is
> with mobile computing. At home, with your own private little network,
> a permanently based computer is not really all that much at risk. But
> if you have a laptop and take it with you and log into ANY public
> network, you run a much greater risk.
>
> You never know if that guy sitting over on the other side of Starbucks
> or McDonalds is running sniffer software and then launching an attack
> into your computer. I myself have the software gadgets to do this and
> I wear no hats, either black or white. As an experiment, I attempted
> to do this (in the privacy of my own home with test devices/computers)
> and was able to get the username and password on another computer from
> the other one when I logged into a popular site. Now, granted, I was
> able to do this as I ran an isolated test bench with no other users on
> it, so I didn't have to filter very much, but the bad guys have
> already filtered out what doesn't matter.
>
> Combine this open network thing with network spoofing and it gets even
> more interesting. Especially with "open" networks setup as "Dlink" or
> "home" or some such standard out-of-box settings. Many people will let
> their computers/devices automatically attach to said devices and end
> up getting violated. What really compounds this is if you setup a
> "Home Network" on your computer. Most people use the same naming.
> Well, guess what--the bad guys know this and will have their hacking
> computer looking for these standard network names and as a result will
> be able to access your shared drives.
>
> It gets even more interesting with smartphones. It goes by different
> branding names, but the one my cell provider calls it is "Wi-Fi Now".
> Just say no to it. Please?
>
> AG
>
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|