internet security on board question

[drk]

Hi all. I'm not overly tech savvy but moderately paranoid. We are thinking of bringing our laptop on board the Mercury next month to use those free elite minutes. DW likes to do banking and stock trading online and wants to know how secure the ships internet connections are. Does anyone out there have info in this regard?

 

Thanks.

[cruisingdelt]

Hi all. I'm not overly tech savvy but moderately paranoid. We are thinking of bringing our laptop on board the Mercury next month to use those free elite minutes. DW likes to do banking and stock trading online and wants to know how secure the ships internet connections are. Does anyone out there have info in this regard?

 

Thanks.

 

I have no specifics but a good general rule of thumb: avoid sending sensitive info over any public wifi.

[Charles4515]

Hi all. I'm not overly tech savvy but moderately paranoid. We are thinking of bringing our laptop on board the Mercury next month to use those free elite minutes. DW likes to do banking and stock trading online and wants to know how secure the ships internet connections are. Does anyone out there have info in this regard?

 

 

It helps that you anyone using it has to log on. But anyone logged in could theoretically get access. When I have been logged on I have seen a few other computers on the network that have left file sharing on. Always make sure that you do any banking or trading transactions over SSL. Those show as https in your browser. Even better would be to use a VPN.

[texkan]

I use internet for banking - my husband has told me to never use public wifi.

[Fblack]

I also would generally not do sensitive items or banking on a wifi. But on The Equinox, I set up wifi. You get to choose your own log-in and password. It seems secure. I used it with my Elite minutes.

[D4]

I personally don't do banking or things like that on public wi-fi

 

However, if you choose to do that, I'd recommend only doing it when the ship is out to sea. If you are in port, people on shore could potentially pick up your transmissions.

[Lsimon]

Another thing to consider is that the service is dreadfully slow if you can get a signal and log on at all. The only time we've gotten a relatively fast signal is very late at night or very early when most people are sleeping. And even then the signal is nothing compared to the broadband speeds we get at home.

 

It is bad enough doing a few basic emails. I wouldn't want to even think of navigating a bank we site, let alone a stock broker or stock trading site. And I certainly wouldn't want to be in a position where I had to do so by a certain time.

[monorailmedic]

it is a good rule of thumb to avoid banking and similar on public wifi. is it easy to read those data packets and figure out your info? well, not very easy, but it can be done without special equipment.

 

nothing is perfectly secure but if you want to do anything terribly sensitive like that and want to feel that much better about it I would use the computers they provide on board. they may connect wirelessly or via ethernet but if it's wireless its at least protected somewhat on their side. anything can be penetrated but if you take the convenience factor out you make yourself much more safe.

 

that being said, not many people who steal banking info would find a celebrity cruise nearly as convenient as the local starbucks, making the ship inherently more safe (I'd think) but you get the idea.

[DeltaOne]

Hi all. I'm not overly tech savvy but moderately paranoid. We are thinking of bringing our laptop on board the Mercury next month to use those free elite minutes. DW likes to do banking and stock trading online and wants to know how secure the ships internet connections are. Does anyone out there have info in this regard?

 

The only way it's safe is if the ship's WiFi is encrypted. The normal way to tell if the WiFi is encrypted is the requirement of a password to join the network.

 

On the ship you must use a password, but I have a feeling it's just to be sure you've paid for access. It's highly likely the WiFi on the ship is not encrypted and anyone could be capturing your data.

 

Plus, you're only considering the WiFi segment of the network. Once your traffic is on the ship's LAN (on the way to the satellite link) it could be captured too.

 

Bottom line -- don't do your banking while on the ship's network.

[Lsimon]

...On the ship you must use a password, but I have a feeling it's just to be sure you've paid for access. It's highly likely the WiFi on the ship is not encrypted and anyone could be capturing your data....

 

This is true. The password we entered was for our internet account (established at the internet cafe on board) and was entered on a web page. There was no wi-fi password for any wireless encryption required before opening a browser to get the Celebrity sign on page.

[JanineM]

It is bad enough doing a few basic emails. I wouldn't want to even think of navigating a bank we site, let alone a stock broker or stock trading site. And I certainly wouldn't want to be in a position where I had to do so by a certain time.

 

I agree. If he's trading then it's time sensitive information and there is a risk that a transaction could get hung up part way through. If there's any volatility then he could pay too much, receive too little, or risk the trade not going through at all.

 

I have a couple of trades I'm going to be watching when we sail. If I need to do something then I'm going to bite the bullet and pay the cellphone surcharge and call my broker.

[drk]

Much good info and food for thought. Thanks for all the ideas.

[DeltaOne]

This is true. The password we entered was for our internet account (established at the internet cafe on board) and was entered on a web page. There was no wi-fi password for any wireless encryption required before opening a browser to get the Celebrity sign on page.

 

I suppose it would be safe to do banking if you used one of the ship's computers _and_ the link uses https ("s" for "secure" meaning the data is encrypted). But there are other security issues -- how do you know someone on the ship's staff didn't install key-logging software? It's just not worth the risk...

[ccletzgo]

I use my own lap top and after logging in to the ships WI FI I open my installed AOL program and use net scape. I feel better going through that then the internet explorer and I also at least know all the security settings I have on my laptop. I cant get away from doing some banking while on board. (own my business) so far, never had a problem....Not saying its not risky but its something I just have to do while away.