Question about privacy concerning NetShark and NetMiner

Few weeks ago I've never heard about these softwares. After reading about them, I read somewhere that once connect to a wireless network, the person can see all data that is coming and going unless it is encrypted. Is that true?

What if the person is not connected to the wireless network (cause he does not know the network password), can he still see traffic coming and going?

 

Who is "the Person" you speak of please.?

 

anyone. In the first example, someone with a laptop+netshark+net miner who is connected to the wireless network (so he has the password to connect to the wireless network, let's say WPA2). In the second example, someone who does not have the wireless network password but has a laptop and netshark and netminer on this laptop.

 

Those particular software tools don't ring a bell with me, but there definitely are various effective tools out there which can be used for good and/or evil. I assume it is that latter fact that matters most for purposes of this discussion.

FWIW, I believe you're toast if the adversary is modestly knowledgeable and knows the WPA2-Personal password. You might also be toast if the password and SSID are weak. A long/strong password and longer/unique SSID are desirable.

 

It sounds like you are referring to packet sniffers. Yes any and all information sent over the LAN/WLAN at that point once the end client is authenticated would be able to be monitored and recorded.

If they do not have the authentication password or PKI token then their sniffers would only see encrypted data. Now cracking WEP WPA/2 is another issue.

 

So you saying that once someone connects to the wireless network (let's assume he knows the WPA2 password), he can monitore and record everything going on the network, correct?
But if the person does not have the password to connect to the network, if he tries to sniffer, all he will see is encrypted data, right?

thank you

 

so you saying there are softwares that do a "better job" sniffing data on wireless networks than netshark and netminer? Am I all safe against this softwares if I use anti-virus, firewall and VPN?

 

I don't know "netshark" or "netminer". I have only used and learned about other tools.

If someone knows the SSID and WPA2-Personal password and connects to the same AP as you, what they can see will be affected by the switching/isolation features of the AP. Generally speaking, the AP will not send all of your traffic to them.

However, instead of connecting to the AP they could use a tool to capture your wireless (WiFi/WLAN) traffic. Since they know the SSID and WPA2-Personal password they can plug those into the tool, and assuming they've done what is necessary to also capture the handshakes, decrypt the 802.11 traffic between your device and the AP.

Assuming the firewall and VPN are strong and tightly configured, I think you should be pretty safe. They may have sniffed, decrypted, and gained access to your wireless traffic but the VPN will add an additional layer of encryption that they'd have to MITM or otherwise break through somehow.