5 August 2019
Not all holiday thefts are handbags and wallets. Travellers are advised to be careful when logging onto Wi-Fi abroad
There was a time when traveling safely meant securing your passport, keeping your wallet out of the hands of thieves, and making sure you didn’t lose your credit cards. That’s all still important. But traveling safely today also means protecting yourself when using public Wi-Fi. We all travel with our smartphone these days, and often use public Wi-Fi while we are on our holidays to upload snaps to Facebook, purchase the sundress you’ve envied on the woman in the hotel bar, or do the grocery shopping for home ahead of your return flight. It seems safe enough - but is it?
Advice from IT gurus together with former 'ethical hackers' now working cyber security roles. the dangers of public connections are often ignored in favour of convenience, at a time when we are at our most relaxed. But by using unsecured public Wi-Fi while we travel, we could be exposing data that could makes our online accounts vulnerable and put ourselves at risk of identity theft. Think of your mobile device as your online passport. You’d never leave your passport laying around your hotel room, giving others access to your personal information - in the airport, cafe, or hotel.
When a Wi-Fi hotspot is unsecured, it means data transmitted or received is unprotected. Anybody on the same network could spy on your information if they have the know-how. Avoid logging in to any sites that require a password, because hackers could be using software kits to capture yours. Be wary of websites that hold any of your sensitive information, like banking or financial institutions, or transactional sites — such as online retailers —on which you store credit card information. Cyberthieves use specialised tools or fake hotspots to launch Man-in-the-Middle attacks to get in between point A (your device) and point B (a website) to intercept your valuable personal information. Without a trusted VPN — short for virtual private network — to encrypt your connection, any information you send or receive on public Wi-Fi could be vulnerable. That might include your social media logins, bank account credentials, and credit card numbers. They may even try the Evil Twin attack and create their own Wi-Fi signal that looks identical to one provided by a hotel, coffee shop or restaurant. When you log onto this unauthorised Wi-Fi, the cyberthief can monitor everything you do online -and steal your credit card details.
So while public Wi-Fi is convenient it is a fertile breeding ground for Cybercriminal activity, which is why security experts recommend that you never use your credit cards on public Wi-Fi.
Tips to make you more secure:
• Selecting the most secure settings on your PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets. Turn off any features that will automatically connect your device to any available Wi-Fi network. Switch off your Bluetooth too, unless you need to use it.
• Change your passwords before you travel - choose new, complex passwords before you leave, and then change them again when you get home.
• Be sure to update your software and apps before you travel - as these offer fixes for newly discovered vulnerabilities. You could also add security software to your devices, such as Norton Mobile Security, which warns you of suspicious Android apps before you download them. Norton Mobile Security for iOS is also available.
• Avoid logging in to any online accounts that store any of your sensitive information, such as online shopping, banks and social media profiles.
If you do surf online, make sure the URL of the website you’re visiting starts with “HTTPS” because the “S” stands for secure, and data is encrypted.
