5 ms·
I'm pretty dismayed to read this. If you regularly connect to random wireless networks in cafes and hotels, you're a moron if you don't connect through a VPN.
by jnbiche 13y ago
I'm pretty dismayed to read this. If you regularly connect to random wireless networks in cafes and hotels, you're a moron if you don't connect through a VPN. If you're not connecting through a VPN all your non-SSL/TLS traffic is available for reading for whatever bored cracker has found his way onto the router. Plus, not all sensitive sites implement SSL/TLS and those that do often implement it poorly[1]. .
Not to even speak of the whole NSA spying thing.
Not all of us are corporate drones with the mother ship VPN to connect to, so we have to pay for ours.
I can't believe the number of people here on HN who think that no one but criminals use VPNs.
1. http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/90-of-popular-ssl-sites-vulnerable-to-exploits-researchers-find/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/90-of-popular-ssl-si...
- dangrossman 13y agoI don't think anyone thinks that. You only need more than 1% of the customers of a service to be paying with fraudulent instruments to be unable to accept credit cards, practically. 1% of your volume coming back in chargebacks consistently is the cutoff with most MAPs.
- bravura 13y agoCan someone explain why the CC companies ban high-chargeback-risk companies? Why can't they simply ask for a higher fee?
- ketralnis 13y agoThey probably do do that, first
- nknighthb 13y agoBecause the cost isn't limited to a single merchant, transaction, or customer. Every incident of credit card fraud increases the inconvenience of using credit cards. That's exactly the opposite of what credit card companies want. They want to make the process of using your credit card as simple and painless as possible. Ironically, this is also why they've taken none of the obvious technological steps that could virtually eradicate credit card fraud.
- tomjen3 13y agoCan you elaborate on some of those techniques? Plenty of people are reluctant to use credit cards online for the fear that they might get stolen.
- nknighthb 13y agoPicture, for example, a card which has a small OLED display which displays an amount and a merchant name. You press a little button on the card, and an authorization is generated, cryptographically signed with an embedded key, and sent to the card reader (which also provides the power for the card). Such a reader can be built into laptops, keyboards, smartphones, available as small stand-alone USB devices, etc.. Web browsers, POS systems, etc. can send a request to the reader and tell the user to place their card on it and check the card's display. Transactions without a valid signature can simply be discarded. If the system is implemented properly, the only way to commit fraud should be to physically steal the card. (A more paranoid version could include buttons on the card for entering a passcode, so that even if the card is stolen, it would be difficult to use, at least before being reported stolen.)
- Amadou 13y agoWell, I can see why they haven't implemented that - its a huge undertaking to build specialized hardware like that into so much varied equipment. For all intents and purposes rolling out a system like that is impossible.
- nknighthb 13y agoI don't believe it is materially more difficult than the NFC rollout. In fact, I believe it would be far easier than NFC if the financial industry would actually get behind it enthusiastically. I'm curious, what other undertakings do you think are impossible? WiFi? Bluetooth? GSM?
- Amadou 13y ago
- azth 13y agoWhat VPN provider(s) do you recommend?