How eavesdropping will be performed how can I prevent from eavesdropping

Question

I believe that eavesdropping in a man in middle attack and the message is passing from the client to server the man sitting at ISP or network hackers can look at what message I am sending. Heard that this can be easily done with wireless networks.

Well, how can I prevent from eavesdropping without SSL?

Does encryption help me in any way?

Will sending a bar code with my message help me?

Is there any other way to prevent eavesdropping?

Also what are the uses of SSL?

Is it only used to prevent attackers from eavesdropping or does it have any other significance?

Answer 1

Simply put - any unencrypted message which is sent can be seen by an attacker who has access to the communications channel. This can be more of a problem with a wireless network, as it is broadcast as opposed to a wired network, which would require an attacker to gain access to a point on the route.

The solutions to this are:

• to encrypt the message
• to encrypt the channel

Both work and are appropriate in different situations.

I'm not sure what you mean by barcode - a barcode isn't a security mechanism, it is a way of representing characters in a machine-readable format.

As to the uses of SSL - there are a wide range of questions here tagged SSL which are worth looking at.

Answer 2

[A Generic Answer]

To prevent Eavesdropping in any kind of communication channel can be achieved by usage of "Secure Tunneling" of your channel data.

on plain network connection, setting up a VPN and so on