- Make sure your phone and mobile devices such as tablets and laptops are always fully patched. Public WiFi can be an easy attack vector for hackers and newer vulnerabilities like KRACK may become serious exploits in the future. This attack vector can be exploited on almost any OS and only the latest patches like iOS 11.1 for iPhone can mitigate the risk. This is one reason why you should always install the latest and greatest OS and patches available.
- Sharing of directories, RDP, or Screen Sharing using local services on Windows or MacOS should be turned off when you travel. With cloud storage, there is no reason to allow inbound network connections on your device to share files or even allow command line access (FTP or SSH). There are too many exploits, brute force credential attacks, and denial of service attacks that can just wreak havoc on your device if you leave them on. Keep the services off and make sure your Firewall is set to block all inbound public access.
- Never connect to any public WiFi that requires personally identifiable information. Never. If it requires an email address, consider using an email address you have designated for spam only. And never, allow the public WiFi to link to social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Google. That is just asking for trouble.
Morey J. Haber, Chief Security Advisor
Morey J. Haber is the Chief Security Advisor at BeyondTrust. As the Chief Security Advisor, Morey is the lead identity and technical evangelist at BeyondTrust. He has more than 25 years of IT industry experience and has authored four books: Privileged Attack Vectors, Asset Attack Vectors, Identity Attack Vectors, and Cloud Attack Vectors. Morey has previously served as BeyondTrust’s Chief Security Officer, Chief Technology, and Vice President of Product Management during his nearly 12-year tenure. In 2020, Morey was elected to the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) Executive Advisory Board, assisting the corporate community with identity security best practices. He originally joined BeyondTrust in 2012 as a part of the acquisition of eEye Digital Security, where he served as a Product Owner and Solutions Engineer, since 2004. Prior to eEye, he was Beta Development Manager for Computer Associates, Inc. He began his career as Reliability and Maintainability Engineer for a government contractor building flight and training simulators. Morey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.