Trading on Public Wifi

[SilverandBitcoins]

Is it a really bad idea to trade on sites like BTC-E or Cryptsy with my laptop when I'm using a free public Wifi network like at Starbucks or McDonalds?

[jellyhashman]

Yeah I'd say so, I'd imagine would be easy to set up a man in the middle attack and have away with your passwords etc.

[Kluge]

I haven't heard of any attacks resulting from this, but you probably don't want to be the first. You'd probably be better off trying to tether your laptop to a phone or something along those lines (or if you're using a phone for BTC, use its mobile data connection rather than WiFi).

[kellrobinson]

how about using vpn or tor?

[TheButterZone]

Make sure the public wifi has VPN passthrough. Some block it.

[odolvlobo]

VPN is unnecessary. SSL will keep you safe. Just make sure you are using https and you have a "locked" icon.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Yeah I'd say so, I'd imagine would be easy to set up a man in the middle attack and have away with your passwords etc.

That is what SSL/TLS is for.

[amspir]

Make sure the public wifi has VPN passthrough. Some block it.

I think it's a shame that a public wifi operator would do this.  A VPN prevents the leaking of possibly sensitive data that could be observed by a hacker monitoring the same wifi network.

[CryptoKilla]

Best idea yet. Please let me know the date and location of this occurance. Kthx

[gollum]

Use a trustworthy VPN service when you are not at home.

But don't use Tor, it's very easy for Tor end nodes to spy on the traffic, copy passwords or perform man-in-the-middle attacks.

[kellrobinson]

Check out the University of Tsukuba's vpn project.
http://www.vpngate.net/en/

[toffoo]

If you're not going to use a VPN, I would suggest installing something like DNSCrypt.  If your machine is secure enough to survive any local exploits, I believe the most likely way "they could get you" is with some type of MitM or DNS-spoofing attack, given their privileged network position.

[TheButterZone]

Make sure the public wifi has VPN passthrough. Some block it.

I think it's a shame that a public wifi operator would do this.  A VPN prevents the leaking of possibly sensitive data that could be observed by a hacker monitoring the same wifi network.

It may be that passthrough is blocked by firmware default. I doubt it's blocked by individual site operators.