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Eir's commitment to security?

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  • 18-04-2020 10:39pm
    #1
    Impetus
    Registered Users Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭


    https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=business.eir.ie

    Eir fails many test criteria on their website. One suspects that their services are just as insecure.

    Aside from their negligeent website security (please click on the above link) Eir's call charges are among the highest in the world. eg a call 'set-up' charge of 29c (ie the second somebody answers) for every call you make via their system + 9c per min for a call to a landline or 29c to call a mobile number (aside from calls to their crappy mobile network which has an appallingly tiny set of roaming agreements).

    Which is almost as bad as Microsoft (Teams/Skype) which charges 83.8c per min for calls to mobile numbers in Ireland.

    At least in GB Microsoft charge 2.3c per minute for landline calls and 9c per minute for calls for mobile.

    Over the past few weeks I have had occasion to engage in numerous video meetings/calls to people in Ireland. For security reasons I don't use Zoom. But I do use Jitsi and Microsoft Teams (in cases where there are firewall issues at the other end). I have a 1GB/sec internet connection and the parties in Ireland can see my side of things in HD (because they have enough downward bandwidth to provide video). Some but not all in Ireland are probably stuck with some flavour of DSL with a low bitrate upwards - as a result they look something even worse than the lunar landing videos of decades ago.

    Aside from cost and poor picture / audio (not to mention availability of fiber in most parts of Ireland) - how secure are the various platforms?


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    #2
    sheepsh4gger
    Registered Users Posts: 622 ✭✭✭sheepsh4gger


    Try using Google Meet
    https://meet.google.com/
    I was playing around with it and it gives you a phone number for people to call into if they are on the go/have broadband issues.

    There's a thing coming out this year called Starlink. At the moment it's only being tested in US. I think because Ireland is so far up north and that's where the cells are most dense it might catch on here and put Eircom out of business.
    https://www.starlink.com/

    Today most network traffic is encrypted. If you see HTTPS in the address bar it means that the connection between your computer and the web server can't be hijacked. So for example your ISP can't replace the images in the websites you browse with their own. If you capture the packets and try to take them apart you will just find useless jibberish. It's not computationally possible at the moment to decode these packets.

    Same goes for the say Skype and alike. They encrypt everything between you and their server. They don't care about you're privacy, it's just so that others can't capture the data and use it for targeted advertising etc.

    If you're really concerned about security then switch to MacOS. Windows and Android are full so malware, though today not as much as in the past. If you want to be cheap you can get a Chromebook which runs even more secure Linux. It will probably come with per-installed google apps for conferencing.


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    #3
    sheepsh4gger
    Registered Users Posts: 622 ✭✭✭sheepsh4gger


    Also Eircom's modems got hacked not long ago because they left the management ports open


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    #4
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    Impetus wrote: »
    Some but not all in Ireland are probably stuck with some flavour of DSL with a low bitrate upwards - as a result they look something even worse than the lunar landing videos of decades ago.

    Aside from cost and poor picture / audio (not to mention availability of fiber in most parts of Ireland) - how secure are the various platforms?

    I'm not sure how any of the Eir rant is relavant to platforms being secure over a public network. A public network is a public network and should always be considered insecure but to address bandwidth first....

    I have Eir DSL at home. 60 down, 20 up and it is perfect for a house with 6 people in it. Never had any issues with video calls even while the kids are streaming netflix downstairs. Modern compression algorithms used by google meet etc. need very little bandwidth to achieve solid video quality. 3Mbps with HEVC compression would be more than enough for the kind of video call that most webcams can utilise.

    Anyway, to get back on topic - in terms of security for video calls I personally avoid zoom though I note they made significant efforts around improving the security of their service recently, stopping all feature work for 90 days to focus on it. I personally use google meet and jitsi though with meet I always work off the assumption that it's visible by google.

    Jitsi were working on end to end encrypted video calls last I checked.


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