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Originally Posted by persiancat
Really now? Even if I have a firewall? (That probably sounds really naive, but I honestly don't know.)
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A firewall stops people from entering your computer. But since you are sending out and receiving a signal wirelessly this signal can be picked up by anyone. Further more, if you don’t know what you are connecting to. you are trusting that who ever you are connecting to is doing nothing with the data, they could very well be recording everything you do, including your email passwords, your Instant Messenger passwords, and do what ever they want with it. I’ve been working on a proof of concept AIM man in the middle program, basically, I sit between the conversation, and as the messages go back and forth, I allow/deny/add/alter messages with out there knowledge. Now it’s never going to be used, because I am never going to release it, but it is possible. As for encrypted material, it is possible to spoof both the site, the encryption, and beat all the different safe guards to make it look like you are connecting to the proper source, but you are not. The chances are low, but it does happen.
And just a note to everyone about wireless and wired, just because your computer is hooked up via a wire, if there is a wireless section to your network, the ALL traffic including the part that goes over the wired section CAN be viewed wirelessly through several different methods (but I don’t think it is appropriate to mention how here).