Topic: Insecure WiFi & self SMS gateway inspired by coinapult SMS wallet (Read 1149 times)

 Let's say we're staying in a hotel. You connect over open WiFi... this doesn't sound safe to me for sending BTC.

 What if the WiFi is encrypted but all the guests in the hotel know the password?

 What if you're using a remotely hosted blockchain such as Electrum or Bitcoinspinner?

 My guess is that the best you should do is connect to a VPN or VPS using a one time password or 2 factor auth and then you'll probably want to run a thin bitcoin client athough ideally the full client would be best?

 Failing that then perhaps if using Electrum then make sure you have an SSL connection to the server in settings.

 A more likely threat to me seems a man in the middle with MtGox website rather than actually intercepting transactions because you have the private key right and the private key signs where the transaction is going - the worst that can happen is the attacker drops the packets so the payment doesn't get through... then you pay again, possibly.

 So, Bitcoin in hotels... comments?

 I had a look at Coinapult's SMS wallet. Pretty handy but a shame to have to trust them. It would be better to be able to send such messages to your own phone number at home either through gnokki or by linking to a SMS server where you can rent a virtual mobile number online. All this would be useful for travellers in countries with unreliable infrastructure or where it's hard to buy a local simcard with prepay internet - Iran... others?