Proxy

[FactionHeir]

Hi all,

Out of curiosity, how safe is it to use a proxy?
Due to being on vacation and several sites being blocked, I am having to resort to one to access my email accounts, but outside of drawing the ire of the country's government, can the proxy owner or someone else who connects to the proxy read the data that I am transmitting, including that which goes over "secure" SSL protected sites?

[R'as al Ghul]

Hello FactionHeir,

using a proxy is generally not really safe. The reason is that it's possible for the proxy owner to read your transmissions if they aren't encrypted as with SSL. That someone else attacks that server and reads your packets from outside is unlikely but not impossible either. TOR, the multiproxy network, has been used to gather logins and passwords from unencrypted packets by setting up a compromised exit node (the last machine in the chain of proxies).
If I'd use a proxy for private data I'd like to know who that is and if I can trust him. On vacation it's best to use a VPN, virtual private network. It's encrypted and your privacy is in the interest of the provider because it's their basis for business. University VPN's can also be used.
Anyway, if the email account provides SSL, then you're probably safe and don't need to use a proxy. If you need to use a proxy to reach the email site where you can connect with SSL, you can use TOR. The vidalia packet is very easy to install.

R'as

[FactionHeir]

Thanks R'as!
I wasn't sure what to use and have been using proxies from proxy-list.org so far that had at least SSL support.
The sites I access are all SSL protected too, but still wasn't sure whether or not the proxy could read the packets and sniff them: could be someone has a script that does that specifically for SSL?

Tried VPN first, but this place doesn't seem to like UK sites in general and the VPN is in the UK.

Will use TOR then, if that's safer. Thanks!