Comments on: Tip: Beware of Hacker Supplied Wifi

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By: monkeyjams

monkeyjams — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:22:39 +0000

Oh yeah, if you're interested, you can find Witopia at www.witopia.net

By: monkeyjams

monkeyjams — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:18:42 +0000

Unfortunately, WiFi hotspots are becoming a hotbed of malicious activity and many users do not appreciate the dangers of connecting in these environments. A simple google search will produce articles about the problem, so I’ll omit an extended explanation here. Granted, many of the more sensitive sites (shopping, banking, some online mail) are protected via https. That said, I found that the easiest way to eliminate the problem is through a VPN (virtual private network). Most companies use some form of this technology for employees to establish a connection to their network. However, if you do not have access to a corporate VPN, or just don’t want your employer to have ready access to your surfing habits, I have been using Witopia’s Personal VPN product for a couple of months and really like it. It costs $39.99 a year and if you have an iPhone, for the moment, they provide free access for that with your subscription. Yeah, yet *another* annual subscription to something wasn’t tops on my list of ‘things-to-buy’, but I’ll drop the $40 for the ease of use and peace of mind. These guys really seem to like Macs and I appreciated the candor on their site. The subscription doesn’t rope you in via an automatic renewal which I also thought was pretty cool.

By: Doc Logic

Doc Logic — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:50:02 +0000

I do what Joshua does above but had not heard of JellyfiSSH. To surf ultra secure in OS X I make an ssh tunnel by hand. Great suggestion!

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:15:01 +0000

As for what I do when on unfamiliar WiFi networks, I use JellyfiSSH to establish an SSH tunnel to a hosted server where I have a shell account. Then I point my proxy settings to the tunnel. Pretty simple, but it provides a basic level of security for connections over untrusted networks.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:42:02 +0000

I always see this at the airport.

By: Morgan Roderick

Morgan Roderick — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:33:25 +0000

I use SSH to connect to mail, irc, im, etc.

So most of my sensitive traffic get’s routed through to a server in a datacenter. Makes it lot’s harder for people to snoop on my traffic, and also allows me to use mail, IRC, IM through firewalls on client’s networks that don’t usually allow such activity.

By: Manny

Manny — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:27:03 +0000

I am also surprised you have never seen this before. It generally means that someone else has airport near you and possibly they have internet but many times they do not. It is benign and does not mean anyone is hacking anything.

When I sit in class dozens of us have wireless capability but none of us are allowed to connect to the internet so we all can see each other we have a lot of networks.

Don’t worrry about it.

By: Conner Downey

Conner Downey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:27:17 +0000

Yeah, most of those ssids are benign, as people have said.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:31:51 +0000

I’m surprised you’ve never seen it before. This is an old, apparently benign, but potentially exploitable virus. It passes from Windows XP machine to Windows XP machine so it is nearly ubiquitous because stupid people connect to it with Windows computers. As soon as you connect, you start transmitting.

Thankfully, we’re smart enough to be using Macs.

A google search quickly brings up dozens of descriptions of this. Here’s one: http://tinyurl.com/244cth

By: d.w.

d.w. — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:26:54 +0000

While it is indeed good personal security policy to be watchful and aware when piggybacking on an untrusted wireless network, the ‘free public wifi’ ad hoc meme has a long and storied history: http://tinyurl.com/2rc3dc

(i.e there probably wasn’t anything malicious going on, but it pays to be aware)

By: Michael Mistretta

Michael Mistretta — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:53:46 +0000

That same exact thing happened to me at the library this weekend. I connected to the Free Public Wifi, but then realized it was a direct-to-computer connection and disconnected immediately.

By: Tao

Tao — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:27:22 +0000

Ahhh!
Interesting..

I use my MacBook during lunchtimes at work to do serious coding and stuff (watch films!!!) and there always is a “Free Public Wifi” option available. I just assumed it was some free thinking geek at work that was sharing his connection.

I can connect to the AP – but not get a connection the Internet though…

I wonder if it is the same thing?

I will play in precicely 24 minutes when I am on lunch and let you know!