Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: Wireless security  (Read 2853 times)

grumpy old man

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 3772
Wireless security
« on: May 26, 2008, 06:47:25 PM »

This may seem a daft query but is it any less safe to buy on line with credit card using a wireless connection rather than ethernet cable. 

gom
Logged

roseway

  • Administrator
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 43614
  • Penguins CAN fly
    • DSLstats
Re: Wireless security
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2008, 10:53:05 PM »

You should be using encryption with your wireless connection, and WPA is much better than WEP, which itself better than no encryption. Personally I wouldn't settle for anything less than WPA encryption, in which case there's no significant extra risk in using wireless. Do make sure that you have a good pass phrase though - your cat's name or a simple dictionary word won't suffice.
Logged
  Eric

mr_chris

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Wireless security
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2008, 10:57:58 PM »

Typed this as Roseway was posting, but I'll post it anyway!

As long as your wireless network is encrypted with a STRONG WPA key, basically the more characters you use in the key the harder it is to crack as so many more combinations are required to brute-force an attack. WEP is pretty useless for any form of security as it can be cracked very quickly nowadays, even 128-bit WEP.

Most routers also allow you to look at the list of currently connected wireless clients, so if your router lets you do this, and you want another check, you can make sure you don't have another machine connected before doing the transaction.

And of course all credit card transactions online are (or should be!) done using SSL which means your credit card number and personal details are encrypted anyway. So even if someone actually manages to get onto your wireless network, they've then got to decrypt the secure HTTP session as well - I think they'd have to be quite determined to target such an attack on a single residential wireless connection!

It's highly unlikely that, even if someone does get into your wireless network, that they'll be listening at the particular moment you send your card details over the net. I guess it's more rewarding for someone to gain access to a whole list of credit cards from a particular company's database, which seems to happen more than I'd like, even though it isn't reported too often.

So yeah, use WPA together with a long wireless key, that also contains a few symbols, numbers and spaces (or better still, WPA2 if your router and wireless clients support it, not all do), and you should be pretty secure.

Hope that helps :)
Logged
Chris

Pwiggler

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1542
Re: Wireless security
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2008, 11:46:54 AM »


 I think they'd have to be quite determined to target such an attack on a single residential wireless connection!


i agree, and they'd have a long wait as well for i only do online buying once in a blue moon.

our customers worry about hackers steeling their data, when i ask what data they have on their pc they reply 'my holiday photos' !!!!  who on gods earth is gonna go to all the trouble of hacking a single persons private pc to steel photos??   priceless ..
Logged
Paul

grumpy old man

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 3772
Re: Wireless security
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2008, 09:59:57 PM »

Thank you all for your very full answers.  I do use WPA2 encyrption with a long password of numbers and letters.

I take the point that credit card transactions are encrypted and that even if I have been hacked, my details are secure.

Thanks once again.

gom
Logged
 

anything