Is It Safe To Do Online Banking With A Hotel Wireless Router?
Answer: No
Most hotel wireless routers are not encrypted nor do they have mac address restrictions. This is not by oversight, it is to make getting online convenient for hotel guest. This leaves you vulnerable in two ways. When your computer sends the information from your computer to the wireless router it travels in text packets that could be pulled from the air into another computer. At that point the packets can be opened and they can “see” what you sent from your computer. The other – often overlooked – peril is who can access the hotel’s router.
I have stayed at hotels where I was able to walk right into their router. They had left the ip address, id and password on the router to the default from the factory. I meant no harm. For me it is a matter of security to test their setup before I go online.
So, if the hotel has not secured their router and just anybody can access it you now have a second issue. Having said all that the real question is, “What is the probability that someone here is sniffing packets from the air on this wireless connection?” Or, “What is the probability that someone has compromised the router at this hotel?” Or “Who manages the router at this hotel?”
If you absolutely, positively have to access your bank account while traveling and using an unsecured network log on, do what you have to do quickly and then get out. The first time you can get on a secure network go in and change your banking password.
Enjoy!
I am a network administrator. Recently, a number of local companies have been cut up, some from the Net and some by physical breaks in. I need to address these theories for my company. What security tools and procedures can anyone recommend to deploy and use in a situation like this like this For the network? What vulnerabilities would these monitor or correct? With these in place, what would the network still be vulnerable to?