WiFi safety on a Mac?

[Eidorian]

Not more suprised than I am. I certainly hadn't expected Sunnzy to return with a link this late, and don't have a habit of digging upp old stuff myself.

...and this one must be my most worthless post (so far). Damn. No more posting for me today.

No worries. I'm subscribed to this thread. I was happy to see that both of you came back with new relevant content.

 

[scaredpoet]

That's WEP. The only way to "hack" WPA is to brute force the password, which is why you choose a good, long password with random characters, mixed cases, numbers, and symbols

Actually, with current tools, WEP keys can be retrieved in about 3 minutes.

And yes, WPA is reasonably safe for now given a strong password is used, and that passworded is not given to untrusted parties. Beyond that, all the general rules about plaintext wired networks apply.

Even so, the reality is that most people these days who are interested in snooping for unsecured sensitive information will be more likely to do so by packet sniffing the WiFi connections at the local Starbucks and the like, as opposed to trying to tap into a wired network. Not that the latter is extremely unlikely, but the former is just easier, and most people inclined to do these things like for their trade to be as easy as possible.

Thus, someone using WPA encryption (with a strong password) on their home or office network is doing a good thing and making a reasonable effort to protect the wireless segment of their network. And when you are using a public WiFi spot (or leeching off a neighbor's unsecured connection), you should be on your gaurd about what data you're sending and receiving.