Voom Surf & Stream CAUTION.

[travelpeon]

We used it recently, first time, and had my email hacked badly. Found out that is fairly common when the ships have all passengers that use it using the same access code, stupid on RCI's part

 

:( Did you also log into your e-mail on a ship's computer? Or any other website which might use the same username and password?

 

There are several ways to get your password without it being due to a shared login account. In fact, if one is going to steal passwords, why not steal them from many more people on the ship than one you might share login account with? (Though given the Internet package rates vs how much a single password is worth, one could argue the internet package nets them more practical usage unless the password is also used for banking)

 

Here's some good habits to have for using public computers

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-make-sure-public-computers-use-safe/

 

And public wifi

http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/how-to-stay-safe-on-public-wifi-1779464400

 

If using a mobile/tablet, be sure to setup ssl with your mail clients

https://www.godaddy.com/help/enabling-email-with-ssl-on-your-iphone-4888

https://help.fasthosts.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/2751/~/enabling-ssl-for-your-email-on-an-android-device

 

RCL, to my knowledge, doesn't disable VPN client connections. Celebrity does/did which I wish would be revised since the satellite connections are much faster than they used to be. Plenty of work places use VPN and Celebrity often charges a good bit more than similarly charged Royal ship.

 

Basically, get a good VPN which doesn't keep logs of your data and enable it at any public wifi hotspot. If it VPNs won't work on that network, think again about using it. If you use a lot of social media, investment, or banking websites/apps, many have also enabled 2FA clients which validate "you are who you say you are" using a second authentication method, not just username & password, without access to internet/mobile network (kind of like the bank requires id and a key for accessing a safety deposit box). Think about getting a good password manager to help log which passwords go where, even if you are away from home.

[luckyinpa]

threads like these scare me and make me thankfully i have a tracfone which has no service outside USA. so no chance of this ever happening :)

[Biker19]

Celebrity does/did which I wish would be revised since the satellite connections are much faster than they used to be.

There might some incremental increase in BW, but until they change to a provider like O3B with lower sats, you can't get around the physics of a very poor latency provided by high altitude sats.

[Big_G]

Agreed, there is no way RCI would do this. Even if all Passengers did share the same wifi access code, how would that breach your email security? We all have a different email account and password... very odd comment

...and more often than not, email accounts are usually 'hacked' through phishing.