This article will briefly outline what a web proxy is and how you can use it to keep some of your details you use when browsing websites, secure.
In this day and age it is truly difficult to feel secure and protected with identity theft on the increase our electronic lives means having access to that personal information is more valuable than ever. Learning only a few bits of information about someone like names dates and mothers maiden name along with a password or two and you have serious power over them. This information is becoming easier to retrieve as we spend more time on the internet giving out such information. Anyone using a free anonymous web proxy is therefore not really all that safe or secure.
To illustrate the point an associate of mine has recently stayed in a hotel that belonged to a large chain he had invested in using the wireless network that was available at extra cost. Although there were no complaints in terms of speed and service he found this facility to be incredibly insecure. He had used the free program 'wireshark' which acts as an amazing network sniffer and he could access all sorts of customer information from within the building. He could note down several passwords, tones of personal information including dates of birth, names, addresses and even mothers maiden names. There was very little information being encrypted via SSL but what there was showing was unreadable as expected but for the most part all of the information was available in clear text. This is especially dangerous as many people stick to using the same important memorable password for everything including bank details.
So how much of this information would have been available had he been using an anonymous proxy?
Unfortunately every last word. Every detail would have been there to take as anonymous proxy works only to shield your details from the server you are visiting everyone else can still access all of the information. So when using a wireless network think twice before giving out all your details and always use companies promoting an encrypted method of payment such as SSL.
Oliver is a passionate security analyst who loves to promote the best ways to protect corporate websites. Oliver works for SSL 247 who specialise in Apache SSL Certificates as well as guides on installing SSL certificates on your web server.
