What do hotels and travel have to do with cybersecurity?
Firstly when you’re out of home base, the profile of what you do online is different.
Similar to home cybersecurity and office cybersecurity is different.
When you are away from home what happens? You don’t have control over the network , WiFi or other connections. So what does that mean?
Consider the following questions:
- Is there anything that you need to pay attention to in regarding cybersecurity when your’e staing in an Aitbnb?
- What about your travel signature? What are your devices named? Are you setting yourself up for failure every time you travel? If a potential adversary (criminal hacker)can see that a traveler is in the hotel, they can target them.
- Are you leaving your devices unsupervised in public spaces?
- Did you make a phone call after landing to tell everyone you are ok?
- Are you on your phone trying to find locations and looking for different items in the area?
- Do you connect to unsecured WiFi networks?
After clicking on a WiFi connection do you get a window asking you to update Flash (or another piece of software). This may be an attempt by a hacker to gain acceess to your information. For example, there is a group labeled- DarkHotel from North Korea that attempts to infiltrate executives in luxury hotels.
Bonus question – what is wrong with this image? —
What can you do to reduce risk on the road?
Using a password manager is a good idea.
Enable multi-factor authentication for online accounts is a good idea.
Set Up your own VPN or with reputable VPN software company.
backup your devices
Do not bring devices which are not needed.
Assume you are being Watched in public areas, bring a privacy screen.
Learn Spearphishing and Phishing
Do not use auto-connect to WiFi and Bluetooth
Consider using a different email account on Gmail or Hotmail while also setting up encryption for the emails. (for personal
Do not update software while on road – as that is fraught with risk.
Buy my book to help you in shoring up your IT risk and understanding of defending IT infrastructure.
Bonus Question answer: The Microsoft Windows logo lookalike is not Adobe Flash logo which should have made one think hard before clicking update. Of course let’s also discuss that Adobe Flash is obsolete and no longer being put out by Adobe. (I.e. there are no updates from Adobe)
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