I have a Premium account with SSL security but I’m not at all an expert on these kinds of things.

How safe/unsafe is it actually to store sensitive data (login passwords, bank info, etc.) on a backpack page?

I’ve wondered the same about non-SSL backpacks.

If an ‘outsider’ can’t see someone’s backpack without the password, what advantage is SSL?

SSL provides privacy for the data as it travels from your computer to your backpack page thereby preventing someone from getting meaningful information from sniffed packets. If you’d like to understand it a bit better, read a gentle introduction here
http://www2.rad.com/networks/2001/ssl/index.htm

edit: After re-reading my original post this morning, I wanted to clarify something. SSL works by ensuring that you are connected and exchanging info with whom you intend. Data gets only to your intended recipient by means of an encrypted handshake. Packet sniffers don’t have the unique key to validate their identity, so they can’t get access to any useful data. I didn’t want to sound like I was saying the data itself was encrypted, hence my second post about secondarily encrypting the data itself. SSH, SFTP, and VPN are other related protocols that you may want to know about as we move more and more of our valuable data to the web.

I’d suggest placing all sensitive data in an encrypted disk image or a password protected zip file for online storage regardless of whether you use SSL or not.

Thank you Ken, that’s very helpful.

You sound like you might know the answer to a wireles security setting question I have. If you are (or anyone else is) interested in answering it, you’ll find it here

Thanks!

Thanks for all the info.
I appreciate it.