this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
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It is fine if you use unprotected wifi and then connect to a VPN.
You don't even need a VPN if the software uses proper TLS encryption or equivalent
TLS downgrade attacks are a thing, and can enable MITM attacks. There are server-side mitigations (such as only allowing TLS 1.2+ which should be the case but often isn't because the server has to support a niche user or application that only supports TLS 1.1), and since you usually don't know which TLS version you are using, for very sensitive connections it should be assumed that TLS is not enough.
Don't even get me started on the non-security of standard mobile/landline calls. They're basically transparent for an attacker with means like Russia's.
Proper E2E encryption and/or a VPN should be mandatory for a call to be considered secure, period.
If WebEx is susceptible to MITM attacks, it shouldn't be used for sensitive calls. It's better to use a VPN, but something like this should not happen at all, even without VPNs.
Sure, but when you demonstrably don't have a handle on E2E encryption using a VPN should be the FIRST step because it is very easy to implement, secure, and enforce. Virtually every private company does it.
Conversely E2E encryption is hard, lots of popular apps disable it by default or in some cases because it breaks a lot of useful things (like search). I agree it SHOULD still be mandated, but it's several orders of magnitude more expensive to switch the communication tool than mandating a VPN so for me that immediately pushes it second to VPN on the priority list.
I like the American option. We just built an entire second Internet and air-gapped it.
These VPN ad campaigns are incredibly detrimental to people's understanding of security mechanisms in the internet.
How would this not have helped out in this case? I imagine the Bundeswehr must have an organization-wide VPN which would render any MITM in a local Wifi network impossible, barring user error.
The data still has to go through the man in the middle. It doesn't matter if it's encrypted by the VPN or the App.