Thread: WiFi
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Old 05-08-2014, 10:08 PM   #25
harbor950
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City: Nokomis
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 200
[QUOTE=Great Laker;232690]
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedtree View Post


You say the "entire data stream under https is encrypted. Does that include the login, or just the stream after login? If login is not encrypted someone can steal the login name and password and access your banking data.
Login pages for financial institutions of any size are highly likely to be secured. They either use a home page SSL login, or an intermediate redirect (the pause you sometimes experience and can sometimes see taking place in the address bar). The process can often be seen if you know what to look for.

Paypal and others use an HTTPS home page and there are other strategies as well. Yes, it would be possible to connect with a small retailer that does not use best practices, but the general state of the art has advanced tremendously. So has the state of the art for the crooks. If you look for absolute security, you will not find it online any more than offline.

Protect yourself by using different logins and passwords per site and generally using established institutions who cannot afford to defend themselves if they are caught using less than best available security techniques. So far, Target has lost their CEO and its CIO in its recent data breach.
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