Yes, a long crazy title – there's alot to cover. I haven't got much to say, but these are some interesting articles you might enjoy about possible Chinese hackers trying to get into the White House, Google blaming China, Baidu profiting from it (and denying it), and of course Gmail being a less and less safe form of email as it comes under frequent attacks
FBI investigates Gmail attacks
Gmail hackers go after White House
Baidu does well after Gmail attacks
I know that a lot of people in China travel around quite a bit, and with all the cool stuff apple has come out with lately, everyone is using wifi. The airport, the internet cafe, work, the dorm, school. There are tons of places where you can get connected to a public wifi zone.
Recently a new firefox add-on called "Firesheep" is doing some nasty stuff.
In the past, hacking was for the nerds. It was for the baddies trying to steal stuff, make money, and make trouble. Ok, every once i a while some guy pulling a prank would hack some site for fun, but usually, this kind of stuff was for the professionals.
Now hacking has become automatic. With this Firefox add-on, any idiot can "side jack" or HTTP session jack your private information.
Emails, passwords, Facebook information – all with the click of a button – if you're on the same wifi network.
The good news is that with a vpn, this can't happen. Remember how a vpn codes your information? Protects you
Remember how a vpn changes your IP address? Protects you
Remember how a vpn make The Great Firewall think you're somewhere else? So will these nasty Firesheep douchebags.
Read more about Firesheep – (it's a blog, I you might not be able to access it – Here's Witopia Firesheep)