Borrowing Off A Friends Network, Security Issues.

Okay, so here is my situation: I am currently borrowing internet off of one of the other tenets in my apartment complex. Which was extremely nice of him considering the outrageous cost of internet, however, I am a bit concerned about my privacy now. He is somewhat computer literate and I am afraid he might be able to gain access to sensitive information I have on my computer and browsing information from when I use the internet. So my first question is this, am I just being paranoid or is there some validity to my fears? My second question: if he can in fact gain access to say, what web pages I surf, does that mean he can gain access to the information I type into those websites such as passwords and the likes? Third question: if both 1 and 2 are true, is there a way I can protect myself so that it becomes impossible for him to gain that information?

 

First I understand that you are from Montana but the language used in the title and body of the post has an entirely different meaning in the UK where many of our members and staff reside. So I have taken the liberty of changing the word to "borrowing".

Assuming that you are logging on to a secure network with the owners permission you are probably in little jeopardy but that assumes that he is not going out of his way to hack into your computer. I am also assuming that you have not networked your computer with his. If the network is unsecured so that anyone within range can log on then you are both asking for trouble.

There are many ways of hacking into someone else s computer that have little to do with the network connection and more to do with the security measures you take and what you allow when you download programs etc. You can always password protect your computer and be sure not to be logged into the network automatically and turn off your wifi but that will not protect you when you are actively using the computer on line.

You might want to have a read through this site produced by Carnegie Mellon : http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/home_networks.html
It is very comprehensive and will give you a good idea why there are no simple answers