How secure am I from people on the same network?
My friend and I have been chatting online together for a while, but he recently found out that his roommate might be trying to hack his computer. All the roommates, including my friend, use the potentially hostile roommate's wireless router. My friend is running Vista with his network set on "public", has Norton Internet Security (with up-to-date subscription), and has physical control over his laptop (meaning they cannot physically install anything). Given that he is using their wireless to connect, is there any way for them to listen in to chats, get access to passwords for email or bank accounts, or anything else? We usually chat with Googletalk, but are not opposed to switching to a different client. How vulnerable is his system, and if it is vulnerable, what should be done? Neither of us is a computer expert, but a friend who knows a bit more than us said, "Don't worry about it -- they'd have to be serious hackers to break in." That being said, what if they really are determined? The roommate don't have NSA level resources or anything, but what if the roommate has a decent amount of computer savvy or contacts and interest in applying them?