THERE’S good news and bad this week.
John Griffiths.
The reason for this is that public WiFi networks are sprouting like topsy with Chief Minister Katy Gallagher launching the first nodes in Civic last week.
It does everything your mobile data plan already does, only now the ratepayers are footing the bill to take business away from the telcos.
That and it’s monumentally insecure. Every other machine on a public WiFi network can see all the unencrypted traffic sent on it (and can, if so motivated, have a red hot crack at the encryption for good measure).
If you’ve got an app on your phone that is sending data back to the server unencrypted and the password you use is reused somewhere else (and who doesn’t reuse passwords to try and keep track of them?) you’re in big trouble.
How do you tell if your app is encrypting your data? You can’t tell.
In your phone or tablet’s web-browser you can look for an address of https rather than http, or a closed padlock icon, but for your apps (pretty much all of them) that also access the internet, and phone home periodically, it’s a mystery.
Even worse, if your phone automatically checks for WiFi networks (and I know mine does) then even without consciously logging on to these free networks there are hacking devices that can poll your phone for networks it’s been on recently (like your home WiFi) and then pretend to be that network. Your phone connects, sends the hacker the key to your home network, and then starts spewing data thinking it’s safe and at your quarters.
If you’re thinking this couldn’t happen to you bear in mind on October 21 the Minister for Justice had this to say:
“In 2011-12 more Australians reported being a victim of identity crime than victims of robbery, motor vehicle theft, household break-ins or assault.
“New figures in a Commonwealth Government report released today show that each year between 750,000 to 900,000 people fall victim to identity crime resulting in financial loss.”
You could tell your phone to not automatically connect to known networks (but who has time for that?) or you can shell out for the Virtual Private Network (VPN).
This puts all your network traffic, regardless of the app, in an encrypted tunnel to the country of your choice where a server belonging to your VPN provider conducts your business on the internet as if it were you.
Not only are your traffic and passwords secure (except your home WiFi key, that’s blown and waiting for a van with a high-gain antenna to park outside your house on the street to snoop in), but you’re no longer broadcasting your location to the internet via the frequently mapped topographies of wireless routers.
Android phones, for example, use in their navigation products the network addresses Google’s StreetView cars have discovered and associated with GPS data.
It will cost money (annoyingly) but there is an upside.
With a VPN you’ll be able to get access to Netflix in the US to watch “Game of Thrones” rather than getting gouged by Rupert Murdoch, and your metadata will be safe(r) from government snooping.
Until now I haven’t bothered. But I think now is the time we can’t afford to wait.
TorrentFreak (who have some considerable skin in the game) have a review of VPN providers at this address:
torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/
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