>They're completely secure.
No, they are not. They will never be. They might be secure, but not completely. It is true that we are getting safer, but you should not stop thinking about the risks that will never go away.
No, they are not. They will never be. They might be secure, but not completely. It is true that we are getting safer, but you should not stop thinking about the risks that will never go away.
Do you really need to check you email on a public wifi? If it's not necessary, then just don't do it. It's the small things. Sure you can take this into the extreme (which is never a bad thing in this case), but even if we don't, then we should not teach people that every public wifi is perfectly fine. Please remain thoughtful.
Likewise, your threat of being preyed upon on an open AP is dependent on what you're doing on that AP. Surfing HN? Who cares. But if I'm checking my bank account balance or touching sensitive info, I'm absolutely going to fire up a vpn first.
> No, they are not. They will never be. They might be secure, but not completely...
But we take risks ALL THE TIME. In a primitive sense, risk assessment can be thought of as a product...
risk = severity_of_outcome x probability_of_occurence
A lot of these things are unclear-- even for "experts" on HN.
In the absence of actual credible stories about the bad things that happen on public wifi, people will DISMISS the risk. Some may choose a more paranoid approach and never use public wifi, but I think that's just about as unreasonable as the opposite.