Is public wireless internet secure?

[AZBrandon]

Ok, so I've always wondered this. Every monday I meet a group of friends at a coffee shop that has free wireless internet. I see several other people (although none of my friends) who bring in their computers and use the coffee shop internet for doing whatever they're doing. I can only assume they are doing all the things you expect people to do on the internet, such as logging into social networking programs, instant messenger, checking email, but maybe even buying stuff with credit cards over the internet.

So that begs the question - how secure is wireless networking? I've read of various standards, such as WEP for home networks, but that WEP isn't even secure, and certainly a wide open wireless network should have no security at all, right? Doesn't that mean every coffee shop with wireless networking is basically a target-rich environment for hackers?

[qviri]

Yes, the packets are just flying through the air unencrypted (or, with WEP, poorly encrypted). I always try to use HTTPS sites when I'm on free wireless like that. If you have access to a server (or can configure your home computer appropriately), you could also do an SSH tunnel and browse through that.

[merlin]

Public wireless is about as secure as leaving your house door unlocked when you leave the house. Basically unless someone bothers to check, you're ok. But if anyone has any interest in stealing your data, it's a piece of cake to do. Any hacker can harvest your account info, cc numbers, etc as long as you're on a public network. Now SSH can certainly help put a stop to this

[aaa]

Biggest concern is that some IM programs and websites don't do any encryption at all when you enter your password, letting anyone along the line of your internet connection see them easily. And that it'd be pretty easy for someone to watch what you're browsing, too.

[Beyonder]

So that begs the question - how secure is wireless networking? I've read of various standards, such as WEP for home networks, but that WEP isn't even secure, and certainly a wide open wireless network should have no security at all, right? Doesn't that mean every coffee shop with wireless networking is basically a target-rich environment for hackers?

It depends. If it's a normal http connection over an unsecured wireless network, then all the traffic is in the clear. But rarely would you ever see a web site where private information (e.g. credit card info) is sent over http. In general, I think there isn't a big reason for most people to secure a wireless network.

In short: I don't think it's a big deal, unless you're frequenting sites that don't use SSL where it's appropriate, or sites that use SSL but don't have proper certification. And if people are frequenting sites that have illegitimate certificates, having the information encrypted probably isn't the real issue...