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Mac Forum / General / General / May 2008Wifi Security For Dummies
My dad comes to me for help with computers, and today, he came to me with something completely outside my area of expertise, so I'm hoping you guys can help me. It concerns wireless networking. Keep in mind, I don't know anything about networks, I keep my computers sandboxed and use removable media to shuttle information between them. I have a wifi card for my laptop at hot spots, but paranoia makes me only check sites that don't require me to log in (and using my credit card over a wifi network is a definite no-no). My dad is planning a huge, long vacation later this year. He wants to take his laptop, an Apple G4 iBook equipped with an Airport card, with for things like online banking. But he's concerned about computer security and asked me to see how to keep things safe. He doesn't have file sharing activated, so I'm not too concerned about that. My concern is the actual data transmission. I have heard a technique called "sidejacking" is on the rise. I always wondered about wireless and, since everything is transmitted, if a receiver can pick up the signals, analogous to another radio picking up the same broadcast station. Based on some of the news I've been reading, my concern is not only valid, but it is being used -- people can park at, say, a Starbucks and "listen in" on other computers communicating with the server, intercepting passwords, credit card numbers, etc. I just got back from an Apple store, and when I asked the guy at the Genius Bar about it, he said he had never heard of anyone sidejacking in 5 years in the business. So no dice with him. So, the basic question is, is there a way to secure data transmission and receiving? Should he not use anything that doesn't ask for a WPA password (no going to Panera Bread or Starbucks)? And, since a sidejacker can pick up whatever is being sent, what's to keep them from grabbing the WPA password or https encryptions and cracking them anyway? Or, is there a book for a wifi security newbie that will help clear this stuff up? > So, the basic question is, is there a way to secure data transmission > and receiving? Should he not use anything that doesn't ask for a WPA [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > anyway? Or, is there a book for a wifi security newbie that will help > clear this stuff up? All encryption can be broken if you want to put in the required effort. However, while WEP can be broken in a matter of minutes if not seconds, WPA takes hours if not days, so unless a 'sidejacker' really, really, REALLY wants in, having WPA protection is good enough. Being 'protected' by WEP is actually worse than having no protection at all, as it causes hassles for legitimate users while being nearly transparent to attackers. I'd start here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_security> Some of the links are useful; others are, well, shite. This article <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/15/wep_crack_interview/> is a good overview of the state of WEP, and has some good links. You might want to look at <http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2002/04/19/security.html> and <http://safari.oreilly.com/0321136209>. Warning: this is heavyweight division stuff. The first page dates from 2002, and so is somewhat outdated. The second points to a very large, and somewhat expensive, book which goes into excruciating detail about wireless security. That book was first published in 2003, but has been updated since. Also mentioned on that page is a book on wireless hacking, which by definition shows how to defend against hack attempts. Probably the best book for your purposes would be <http://press.oreilly.com/pub/pr/1912>. Note that O'Reilly books tend to be members of the heavyweight division in more ways than one. The current edition was released in February 2008, so it's right up to date.  Signatureemail to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com. In article <86d223c4-6472-40e5-81a2-480e08a64671@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>, > My dad is planning a huge, long vacation later this year. He wants to > take his laptop, an Apple G4 iBook equipped with an Airport card, with > for things like online banking. But he's concerned about computer > security and asked me to see how to keep things safe. Most Banks Websites are using Secure Socket and HPPTS for their Transaction packets which encrypt in the Laptop and decrypt in the Web Server with 128 Bit Public/Private Key technology. Makes Packet sniffing in realtime, mostly useless for the Sniffers. I wouldn't worry about the Banking Stuff, but more about general surfing, and email that is moved in the clear. I just wanted to say thank you for the advice, I appreciate it. Just trying to be polite. |
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