Securing wifi connections
A while ago, I was talking about a pendrive that encrypted communications, and included a browser, e-mail program and password keeper.
The perfect companion for the security minded cyber cafe using globetrotter.
I was enchanted with the idea, but was looking for a roll your own solution.
What I’ve found, is that you either need to buy an anonymizer service with encryption, use your job’s VPN, or have your own “server”.
The least involved do-it-yourself solution for the non-corporate types is described here:
HOW-TO: SSH HTTP proxy setup - hack a day - www.hackaday.com _
That solution could be put on a pendrive, and probably is used exactly that way by quite a few school children.
The other solution is more geeky, and “better” in many ways:
OpenVPN.
Perfect for sharing with friends.
Before you choose one of those solutions: There are lots of other solutions, and you’ll find quite a few of those in the comments on the SSH post.
But I’d like to add a caution. There are other security concerns other than sniffing network traffic:
*Eyeballing you inputting your passwords
*Stealing your laptop
*Installing keyloggers on cyber cafe computers.
*Computer history and cache if you use other people’s computers without Firefox to go on a pendrive.
With care, you can avoid snoops getting useful info even when using unsafe networks and computers. But it takes some thought and precautions.