Privacy

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Am I okay without a VPN on public networks if I use HTTPS? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by tester1121@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I keep hearing on VPN ads that you have to use a VPN to not have your login information stolen. So far I have been using Cloudflare WARP to be safe enough. However, if I am using an HTTPS website, do I really need a VPN or WARP? Will an attacker on the same network as me be able to access passwords transmitted over HTTPS?

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[–] serialtwo_six@union.place 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Ooops @tester1121 @loudWaterEnjoyer and apparently you also believe that the primary benefit of hiding your packet data is to avoid high-layer sifting by ISPs, and not hostile bad actors or foreign/domestic governments

[–] Ooops@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, given OPs question (triggered by VPN Ads even) and way of asking there is no reason to believe in any scenario where a state-sponsored actor "on the same network" is intercepting data (like "transmitted passwords") because it's only secured by https. That's "can I login safely from a public wifi?"-level.

As you seem to be passionate about these security issues I'm sure that you are familiar with the concept of threat assesment first. Do you believe that a random user asking publically about information seen in advertising is the target of government-level actors wanting to steal his login passwords used on https sites and that breaking the encryption is the easiest measure here?

As I read this question "high-layer sifting by ISPs" (and providers of open wifi) is exactly the threat scenario here.