Jayson Street, no pun intended, demonstrated that all he needs to do is take a walk with the right software on his phone to get into someone’s laptop, tablet, phone or heating system. Street’s hacking program sets up what is known as an “Evil Twin Attack”. It fools wireless users into connecting their smartphones and laptops to a malicious hotspot by posing as a legitimate Wi-Fi provider. Like Optimum, Verizon, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, etc.
You Wi-Fi connect (maybe even automatically) and all your information passes through the attacker’s device. Cybercrooks have total access to whatever comes in and goes out of your device and thereby steal passwords, financial and healthcare data and can send you to malware and phishing sites.
Since you really can’t stop walking around and lock yourself in a lead shielded room, here’s some tips from The Hacker News that you can do to help prevent this from happening to you.
- Turn your WiFi Off: Turn off Wi-Fi devices when you are not using them, especially on the weekends — it saves energy and minimizes your exposure to hackers.
2. Use it or Lose it: Once your phone is in your office, turn off the functions you aren’t using. Enabled functionality usually comes with increased security risks.
Also, make sure you review every other device before you bring them into the workplace. If it is already there, do not be shy about calling customer service and walking through the steps required to shut down any unused functions and connections.
3. Change Your Passwords: It is important never to use the default credentials. Set up strong, secure passwords to secure your devices.
4. Research Your Purchase: Before you even buy a product, always research what you’re buying and make sure you know how to update any software associated with that device.
Look for devices, systems, and services that make it easy to upgrade the device and inform the end user when updates are available.
5. Trust and Verify Every Device: Be aware of any device from brands known to have more security issues than others. The personalization of corporate hardware, including mobile hotspot vendors, is one of the top threats to network security. - Business Owners Use a Product like CyVision Cauldron: (yes this is a blatant advertisement for my product – you know I’m not a salesman, I live and breathe this stuff). In any case Cauldron will map all your devices and their vulnerabilities into a visual weather map, whether you have 10 or 100,000 devices on your network and click and fix. Risk gone. Done. Cauldron is from DHS so it works now. You want proof? You got it.
Ron Benvenisti
CyVision Technologies, Inc