Personal Investments • account security while travelling?

Always use a VPN when connecting to your financial accounts on public wifi, especially overseas.

One day this canard will die.

A VPN does nothing to improve your security when traveling. A VPN definitely doesn't affect any sort of SIM swap scenario, they're completely unrelated things.

You can log into your financial accounts all day long from public wifi with zero risk.

I see. That is indeed news to me.

I typically use a VPN when traveling because I'll be at some train station or some place offering free wi-fi and 1) I have no idea of the correct name of their wi-fi and 2) I have no idea if the router has been locked down or is still using the 'admin' 'admin' login/password it came with.

For 1) it's a known attack vector to offer things like “Starbucks_Wifi_Free” which have nothing to do with Starbucks actual wifi. I don't know the actual names of legitimate wifi services while in cities I have never been before.

For 2) if the public wifi router is hacked, ouch.

Please explain how a legitimate VPN won't help in those circumstances. I thought it'd at least help me to get to the real Vanguard login page and not some fake. No?

Neither of those are viable attacks. 15 years ago, maybe. But browser security has long since improved and spoofed or compromised wifi is simply not a risk. Your browser would refuse to connect to vanguard.com if the wifi network tried to hijack it.

An exemplar scenario is when affluent hotel patrons were subjected to the malevolent actions of cybercriminals who illicitly acquired data and conducted surveillance via the establishment’s wireless network. During the year 2017, a cohort of malicious actors directed their efforts towards compromising the security of individuals who were temporarily lodging at hospitality establishments located in the regions of Europe and the Middle East. The threat actors deployed rogue Wi-Fi access points to emulate legitimate hotel networks.

When users linked to the fake networks, the attackers were capable to intercept their internet activity. Then they collected confidential information including login information and credit card numbers. Since hotel Wi-Fi networks regularly go unencrypted and do not have the proper encryption tools, the assault proved effective.

Statistics: Posted by typical.investor — Tue Sep 10, 2024 1:55 am — Replies 19 — Views 823