[PLUG-TALK] Unsecured Wi-Fi

[wes]

On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 11:17 AM Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com>
wrote:

> On Wed, 14 Aug 2019, Russell Senior wrote:
>
> > LOL. I guess it is summer vacation, so why not re-run an article from
> > 2005.
>
> Russell,
>
> Well, he is on vacation until Labor Day and re-publishing things of
> interest. I suppose that web use via public wi-fi has only become worse in
> the past 14 years. And, there are probably herds of people still unaware of
> the risks.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rich
>
>
IMO, the bigger problem is people who are unaware of the risks associated
with "secure" wireless connections. The level of protection added with the
most commonly used methods of encryption are paltry, at best. This leads
people to have a false sense of security when connecting through them, thus
causing the actual risk to be much higher, rather than lower.

At least with unsecured wifi, there is an attempt to make it clear that you
shouldn't be using it for anything that could cause your data to
be compromised. Browse all the cat pictures you want, just don't log in to
your email.

I think this problem is actually reducing over time, as more people start
to shift towards connecting through their phones instead of public wifi, as
well as more and more sites supporting and enforcing HTTPS.

-wes
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