[Ham-Computers] How safe are "hot spots"?

[Philip, KO6BB]

Just a quick question here.

Awhile back I was having breakfast with a group of local hams at the Merced
Mall food court.  Two of them had their laptops and was browsing some ham
related sites.  I'm just a little curious about how 'safe' it might be to
use these "hot spots". (I DON'T do banking or have any other financial
information in my machines)  I have to presume that since they're open to
customers of the cafe (or whatever), they probably aren't an encrypted link.

But suppose I was at one, perhaps while traveling and wanted to update my
blog site.  I enter my user ID and password to gain access, what is
likelihood (or possibility) that the person at the next table (or in a back
room) can gain access to my connection's "data stream" and obtain the
password, user name etc while I'm entering it (ditto for mail).  I have to
presume that the machines firewall and virus scanner would protect it, at
least somewhat from access to my drives etc.

While I've never used a hot spot, I'm "security nervous" and the reason that
I ask is because sometime back I completely "lost" two Multiply sites (KO6BB
and KO6BB2), one after the other, (my blog site) when they were "hacked and
deleted".  Multiply customer service said it appeared that they had been
deleted from "outside the system" by somebody with the password (I've since
used a "strong" password on my newest site).  They couldn't (or wouldn't)
restore the site and I had to use a new user ID.  We 'think' we know who did
this as a couple other locals here had their "machines" and websites
"hacked".

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
http://ko6bb1.multiply.com/
http://members.lycos.co.uk/ko6bb/

DX begins at the noise floor!
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