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"Although Wi-Fi might work fine for checking email or conducting a brief product demonstration, activities that demand more bandwidth or more security, like tra
by LastZactionHero 11y ago
"Although Wi-Fi might work fine for checking email or conducting a brief product demonstration, activities that demand more bandwidth or more security, like transmitting a live broadcast or running credit cards, still often require wired Internet access."
Why would running a credit card require wired internet?
- wmf 11y agoBecause people don't understand end-to-end encryption.
- explorigin 11y agoThis logic is a few years old, but back when WEP was popular and HTTPS less-so, I was nervous about buying things online over such a connection. WEP was/is easily crackable and without HTTPS, that credit card info is plaintext over the airwaves. Nowadays we have WPA2 and HTTPS is more common. But I still prefer an ethernet cable.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> back when WEP was popular and HTTPS less-so SSL has been used for online card transactions for longer than Windows 95 has been out, it was basically invented for that purpose. Was there really a time when WiFi was in common use and people carried out financial transactions over HTTP?
- cortesoft 11y agoThere was NEVER a time where credit card info was sent over http. When are you talking about?! HTTP over wired is not secure, either.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> There was NEVER a time where credit card info was sent over http. When are you talking about?! Amazon launched in 1995, and SSL only launched the same year, so they might have taken plaintext credit card info for a short while. That's a technicality, though.
- cortesoft 11y agoWell, even then, 802.11 didn't come out until '97, so no one was ordering from Amazon over wireless then!
- explorigin 11y agoEasy there tiger. I ordered more than one cable from some small, dodgy Yahoo store that did not use https. It happened (even if you didn't see it). HTTP over wired is not secure but it requires physical presence rather than proximity to sniff. It's kinda like security by obscurity.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> Why would running a credit card require wired internet? Perhaps credit card point-of-sale devices don't have WiFi?
- mtrpcic 11y agoSquare operates entirely over WiFi (or cellular networks) and has done so for years, so this is a completely invalid argument.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoYes, maybe Square does, but that doesn't mean most devices do.
- Johnny555 11y agoThen use a wired to wifi bridge. Saying that CC terminals require Wifi because not all of them support Wifi is like saying that Laptops require wifi because not all of them have built-in Wifi.
- woodman 11y agoMan I can't wait for ubiquitous natural language processing and symbolic logic. A recap: > "...or running credit cards, still often require wired..." A statement of exclusivity if one overlooks the weaselly use of the word "often". > Why would running a credit card require wired internet? A question of such exclusivity. > Perhaps credit card point-of-sale devices don't have WiFi? A defense of exclusive statement, evidence provided: no POS has wifi. > Square operates entirely over WiFi... A rebuttal to evidence. > ...but that doesn't mean most devices do. An attempt to ignore the original and subsequent defense of statement of exclusivity.
- casylum 11y agoThere was a hack a while back where someone sat in a Best Buy parking lot and recorded credit card numbers in plain text as they transmitted between the cash registers and the Access Point wirelessly with WEP protection. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hi-tech-heist/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hi-tech-heist/
- mikeash 11y agoThat means they require a secure connection, not that they require a wired connection. A wired connection can be insecure (you might stumble across an idle port sitting on the wall somewhere) and a wireless connection can be secure (WPA2 plus TLS is going to be just fine).
- CaptSpify 11y agoAlthough you are correct, I will point out that physical access to a wireless-connection is generally much easier than physical access to a wired-connection
- mikeash 11y agoFor sure. Just pointing out that relying on that difficulty for your security is a bad move.
- malcolmgreaves 11y agoAdd HTTPS to the mix and it's a party!
- mikeash 11y agoHTTPS is HTTP over TLS.
- malcolmgreaves 11y agoFrom the parent comment, it appeared that the commenter was saying TLS for the WiFi connection. Upon reflection, that doesn't make any sense! Nice catch.
- SixSigma 11y agoWhy any if it? I have no wired connection whatever. My phone is 4G and I connect to it over wifi. I regularly watch streamed HD video Broadcasts at about 3-5gbps constant, it maxes out at about 11Gbps. I would be most annoyed to find myself in a hotel where my laptop was being prevented from connecting with my phone.
- pjc50 11y agoBecause the PIN pads cope really badly with lossy connections. Their software is not very good.
- sitharus 11y agoThey run just fine over cellular networks