On Sat, 3 Apr 2004 11:42:46 -0500, gohaku wrote:
> I just read this weblog post:
> Security, Earthlink, and Apple
> URL: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1599
> My question, is using Earthlink's webmail just as secure as the SSL
> Connection and why was Daniel's log in and password revealed???
Okay. There are a few things you need to know about the internet.
(a) every communication on networks is in clear text
(b) all the computers between you and your target server are able to read
communications.
(c) wireless networks are just another kind of network.
(d) wireless networks make it simpler to spy upon network content. The WEP
(Wireless Encryption Protocol) can be broken just by running some code that listens to
a big number of network packages and automatically extracts the encryption key.
Now that you know the above lets go back to your question: Is Earthlink's webmail just
as secure as an SSL connection? Just IF you connect to the webmail service using SSL
(https://). Otherwise it's still readable as clear text.
/oliver/
