Wi Fi security

We've been paying bills on RV park Wifi for the past six years and haven't had a problem.

michelb wrote:
I use public wifi but I'm fully aware that nothing I do over a public wifi is secure. Even with your own private wifi or cell, if someone has the right equipment and technical abiltities, they can get your information.

Do you ever do online banking while your email or any other website or web browser is open on your computer? If so, you have potentially exposed all your banking information.

That is absolutely incorrect and has nothing to do with it. You can get a Keylogger program installed in your PC simply by opening up an email. After that it will record every movement you make on the keyboard, and you can even set up keywords like Pay, Visa, etc. that send out an express email in the background without your knowledge, nor will it slow down the PC one bit while thats taking place. You can pull any info you wish off: passwords, login info, websites visited, chats, email, anything, exactly what time they were sent or created, and its all sent out as an email on a programmable schedule in the background with the important keyword info sent anytime its detected. And if you have access to the PC itself, you can configure the virus program to ignore the Keylogger in a virus scan, and often they don't show up anyway. And the sophistication goes up from here.

The big problem is they are not illegal to own and widely avaliable to buy very cheaply by American companies with very good customer support. People all worried about a hacker hanging out in a CG, which likely has about the same chance of said CG getting hit by an astroid, should pay attention more to your habits, what you open, and where you surf.

My Android tablet provides me with my own wi fi hotspot that will support up to 5 devices. And only I have my password. We use this for financials. We do use park wifi for misc "surfing".

I use public wifi but I'm fully aware that nothing I do over a public wifi is secure. Even with your own private wifi or cell, if someone has the right equipment and technical abiltities, they can get your information.

Do you ever do online banking while your email or any other website or web browser is open on your computer? If so, you have potentially exposed all your banking information.

We use the campground WIFI only for email. When it comes to personal information or paying bills we only use our personal Verizon Mifi. It may not be perfect but we look at it as security to us.

OhhWell wrote:

I'm telling you that it is extremely easy. The toughest part would be waiting for software to break the router's admin password. If you don't understand what I mean by "compromised router", then look it up or at least read the blurb I posted earlier. All you have to do is get in and change the default DNS settings or, if it is in the wee hours of the morning and you will have some time, you could load custom firmware onto the router.

I don't trust any public WIFI network and certainly not a little mom and pop campground enough to login to anything sensitive but that is because I know what can be done and understand the technology.

If the config page is unprotected then you're absolutely correct. Don't need code, just point it elsewhere.

That would actually be an interesting 1st defense check when using an open router is just look at what DNS is being used.
I'm not running my ISP's DNS dejour either. Found it slow and inaccurate.

If you have a young friend, who is really tech savvy, you would be surprised. My Grandson, now older and working in Internet Security for a defense contractor, once sat there on his computer and told me every website that I was looking at, and where I had been. He also told me that he could hack my PC and locate the file with all of my passwords, etc. He did all of this on a supposedly secure wireless network.
There is a reason why info is lost to hackers every day, from big places like banks, etc. It is not that difficult for someone to do if they know what they are doing. 99.9999% of us do not have anything to worry about but I can tell you from experience that if someone is using the same wireless network as you, and you think you are secure, because of WEP, or other security encryption, you are not. The odds are very low that you will be targeted, but it can happen. Sort of like the NSA monitoring your phone calls. They can do it but it is very doubtful you will be their target.

wa8yxm wrote:
I remember one park I was in.. People kept trying to connect and were unable to do so.. I never had a problem but I got there at oh-dark-30 as they say (Well 7:30 usually) and was one of the first to request an IP address every morning.

Common linksys router, in fact the SSID was still Linksys.

Just for the fun of it I tried the default admin password (Admin, no user name) sure enough. IN like Flynn. Found out it only assigned 50 addy's Upped it to 100 (Which by the way is what Linksys recommends, checked with them later in the day)

A year later I spoke with the new manager, He was a bit upset but he settled down when I got him into the password page,, Then left the room so he could change the password to one of his choosing.

They have pros working on it now.

But yes, Many places, still today, Open the box and plug it in, nothing more.

man, that is funny and unfortunately not all that uncommon in the small parks.

I remember one park I was in.. People kept trying to connect and were unable to do so.. I never had a problem but I got there at oh-dark-30 as they say (Well 7:30 usually) and was one of the first to request an IP address every morning.

Common linksys router, in fact the SSID was still Linksys.

Just for the fun of it I tried the default admin password (Admin, no user name) sure enough. IN like Flynn. Found out it only assigned 50 addy's Upped it to 100 (Which by the way is what Linksys recommends, checked with them later in the day)

A year later I spoke with the new manager, He was a bit upset but he settled down when I got him into the password page,, Then left the room so he could change the password to one of his choosing.

They have pros working on it now.

But yes, Many places, still today, Open the box and plug it in, nothing more.

Tara361 wrote:
If when using a campgrounds pass protected Wi Fi and doing something like bill paying, how secure is my information?

This question appears several times per year. For some reason people think if it's over-the-air it's insecure.

I suggest if you don't feel comfortable using it, then don't. There's really no correct answer, as you can see. Nobody on these boards has ever reported being compromised on park wifi.