TheLaptopJunction

Connecting to all sorts of wireless & wired networks for internet access comes with the risk of being spied on. Eves-dropping on computer networks is as old as network technology. With the arrival of the Internet and so many people already connected, eavesdropping becomes a lucrative business for criminals.

Capturing usernames / passwords, transactional information and what not, has taken a real flight with wireless access technology like WIFI. The required hardware to tune in on wireless network communication is cheap, and encryption scheme's (WEP, WPA) have proved to be leaky also.

Many websites already turned to SSL encryption (HTTPS), making login sessions secure making Eves-dropping more difficult. Still there are access methods which are still notoriously unsafe, like POP and SMTP mailbox access, basically giving away username / password in clear text. The better internet / mail provider has SSL encrypted POP and SMTP sessions, the cheaper ones usually don't.

For those traveling with laptops, it's great to have access to e-mail when offline. Outlook Express, Outlook mail all use POP alike access methods. For home users the danger of loosing POP / SMTP username / passwords is less, when not used over an open wireless home network. However when sitting at the airport in a open wireless network, accessing insecure POP mail through Outlook (express) on your laptop is (still) pretty unsafe.

A way to route mail over a safer network is to forward all e-mail to GMAIL. Google Mail has free SLL secure POP/SMTP access - making it harder to steal username / passwords on an unsafe network.

Another way to bypass unsafe networks is to use VPN tunnels like Witopia. Upto the VPN server the session is SSL secure, from there traffic is again insecure. A VPN tunnel is a great way to secure all traffic between a laptop upto the VPN server in an insecure network. It can also be used to bypass webfilters as used in many Middle-East countries.