The United States Department of Homeland Security, National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center and the United States Secret Service have issued a non-public alert concerning a cybercrime and identity theft threat to individuals who use computers in hotel business centers.
Like many of you, I travel on business and pleasure. And, it’s tempting to use the computers in hotel business centers to quickly check email, print airline boarding passes and do other routine computer tasks.
According to computer security expert Brian Krebs, who obtained a copy of the non-public warning document, “Keylogger Malware Found in Hotel Business Centers,” leisure and business travelers should not use the computers in hotel business centers – or any other public computer – “for anything more than browsing the Web.”
As Krebs points out, “if a skilled attacker has physical access to a system, it’s more or less game over for the security of that computer.”
And, according to Krebs, the non-public alert warns that “crooks have been compromising hotel business center PCs with keystroke-logging malware in a bid to steal personal and financial data from guests.”
Bottom line: Don’t use the computers in hotel business centers or any other publicly provided “convenience” computer as you will open yourself up to identity theft and other security threats.
For more information, see: “Beware Loggers at Hotel Business Centers” and/or “U.S. Secret Service Warns of Keyloggers on Public Hotel Computers.”
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