In a previous article, "Peter Duniho" said:
And of course, *that* said, there's probably not much reason for a user to
not be avoiding plain-text passwords and sensitive data regardless of their
network connection. So the advice to not use such things on a wireless
network is perfectly valid, but probably ought to be applied across the
board and not just while at OSH.

If you are on a public wireless network with your own laptop, you should
make damn sure that any site you care about your passwords for (email,
banking, etc) are using ssl to connect (https is http over ssl).

You should also assume that any public access computer, wired or wireless,
is infested with keyboard sniffer programs and hardware and any password
you use on those systems will be immediately captured and sent to people
who will use them for neferious deeds. Never read your email or visit a
banking site at a public access computer (especially not in "internet
cafes"). Even if they wipe the software and reinstall it after every user
(and most places dont), a person could install one of these:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5a05/ or
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/7af2/
and capture every keystroke on the computer without anybody knowing.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Died. Woke up in Hell. Punched in PIN, logged on. Just another day.
-- David Gerard