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I have a shared wifi point with a person who might be interested in knowing what I am browsing, writing and downloading in the internet. This person is the master of this wifi network, only he has an access to all the settings etc. The guy previously was a system administrator, knows quite a bit of programming, had hacking as a hobby in youth times. Being aware of this possible leakage, I purchased this Hotspot shield thing. I wonder if I'm really on the safe side?

Lisa
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    Your question seems to boil down to "does Hotspot shield protect me from eavesdropping by the WiFi administrator?" Is that correct? – schroeder Nov 16 '15 at 21:51
  • Well, sort of. This is a shared flat wifi and "the administrator" could be more motivated than usual admins are :) – Lisa Nov 16 '15 at 21:55

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When using Hotspot you are protected by strong encryption (128-bit key). Attacking that encryption is effectively impossible. So consider your data sent via Hotspot secure.

If someone is really trying to attack your connection, they will likely have better luck attacking your devices than your network connection. Be sure to have strong passwords on your devices and always apply security patches as soon as possible.

Neil Smithline
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When in-doubt, always think that you're never safe. The traffic from the shield to the internet is encrypted. The can get all of your traffic and look at it, but it'll be encrypted. They can try and crack all of it, but it'll probably fail. If he "hacks" into the shield part of the hotspot than he can perform a MITM (Man in the Middle) attack which at that point its much easier to view your information.

Here is how VPN works How does VPN encryption work?

If your truly scared of what he may do, dont use the same hotspot if possible.

Community
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Bad_Guy
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  • http://superuser.com/questions/930780/is-hotspot-shield-safe – Bad_Guy Nov 16 '15 at 22:03
  • Thank you very much for your kind answer! I was wondering if hacking in this case would take a lot of time and resources? And I guess, a lot of brain needed? :) – Lisa Nov 16 '15 at 22:05
  • Brain? maybe a youtube video or two. Resources? a mid-end PC would do the trick just fine. Time? If its RSA encrypted, than he may never be able to view your information. SSL is basically impossible to crack. http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/20803/how-does-ssl-tls-work But a user can use SSLSTRIP and basically view HTTPS as HTTP http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/41988/how-does-sslstrip-work – Bad_Guy Nov 16 '15 at 22:13
  • Also, here is this which most of it is pretty basic but can be really useful http://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/advice-from-real-hacker-protect-yourself-from-being-hacked-0157218/ If he has direct access to your device, than he doesnt need to crack anything. He just has it. – Bad_Guy Nov 16 '15 at 22:15
  • Thanks a lot for this useful information! He doesn't have any access to my devices. The most sensitive information I browse on phone, so that I could always use mobile network. But it's a bit pricey while wifi is free of limit. Hopefully, I don't use SSL :) – Lisa Nov 16 '15 at 22:19
  • SSLStrip isn't relevant as data is encrypted by the VPN. – Neil Smithline Nov 16 '15 at 22:39
  • So that means that I'm anyway on the safe side? :) – Lisa Nov 16 '15 at 23:16
  • @NeilSmithline Even if they are on the same network? Thought VPN only encrypts once it gets to the VPN. – Bad_Guy Nov 16 '15 at 23:26
  • @Bad_Guy that's backwards. Traffic is encrypted between you and the VPN. – multithr3at3d Nov 17 '15 at 01:08
  • Yes. Even if they are on the same network. VPN encrypts all network connections coming out of your computer so everything is protected. – Neil Smithline Nov 17 '15 at 03:02
  • Everyone gets a few downvoted answers Bad_Guy. Keeping reading the stie and you'll get a feel for what does well. – Neil Smithline Nov 17 '15 at 15:02