Safe Surfing in Public?

[Bob001]

Is there a way to web surf safely -- including signing-in to secure personal sites -- using your own laptop in public wifi places like Starbucks and McDonald's? Experts warn against bad guys using packet sniffers and similar mechanisms, but how common are things like that, really? I understand the danger of keyboard loggers etc. on the computers at a library or internet cafe, but I'm talking specifically about using your own computer.

[not daSkeptic]

The general solution is to employ additional security over and above what WiFi already has. Just off the top of my head:


Only visit websites using SSL.
Use a VPN client to route your traffic through another, trusted network.