Public computer users at risk of ID theft

[bravo14]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -

Do you use public computers? Maybe to check in on a flight at a hotel or a convention kiosk?

If so, criminals could be watching every move you make and recording every key you type, with the goal of swiping your personal information.

When John Wetmore travels for work, public computers are his lifeline for email access.

"My biggest worry when I'm using a public computer is, has someone installed spyware on it?" Wetmore said. "There's spyware on it, then someone can capture the key strokes and know my account and my password, and then I'm probably vulnerable."

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Public computer users at risk of ID theft | News - Home

 

[K9WG]

A friend had his bank account hijacked because he ordered something online at the local McD WiFi. I never send anything personal over public WiFi.

 

[com501]

If you have cable Internet at your house, your neighbors on the same concentrator can monitor your traffic too. This is why encryption is ALWAYS a good thing.

 

[moonbounce]

So how do they monitor your key strokes without getting into your computer in the first place. I tried doing that with my laptop and desktop with wifi adapters in both machines but no luck. It would be nice to know what you are up against at wifi hot spots, how do you encrypt your hard drive with Windows 7?

 

[bravo14]

If you have cable Internet at your house, your neighbors on the same concentrator can monitor your traffic too. This is why encryption is ALWAYS a good thing.

We have internet service at my place but we have the Encryption. But I hear there is programs you can get the passwords also not sure if that is true.

 

[CapStar362]

depends on which method of encryption your running. WPA2 has yet to be cracked officially ( at least thats what i heard ) WPA is officially cracked but not very widely. WEP, dont even bother using it unless you have legacy machines, widely cracked and easy to de-hash.


as far as the Cable node thing goes, i dont really have a full understanding of how Cable nodes work