Security advice for travelers to Sochi Olympic hacking hotzone
Sochi visitors entering hacking 'minefield' by firing up electronics | Security & Privacy - CNET News
UPDATE: According to Errata security the NBC story about the hacking in Sochi total BS. Evidently: They were in Moscow, not Sochi. The hack was from sites they visited, not based on their location. They intentionally downloaded malware to their Android phone. So, as a traveler you are still at risk, and my advice still stands, but evidently the environment is not nearly as hostile as reported.
According to an NBC report, the hacking environment at Sochi is really fierce. After firing up a couple of computers at a cafe, they were both attacked within a minute, and within a day, both had been thoroughly compromised.
While you are vulnerable anywhere you use the Internet, it appears that attackers are out in force looking for unwary tourists enjoying the olympics.
Make sure you take precautions when you travel, especially to major events like the Sochi Olympics.
- Enable whole disk encryption on your laptop (FileVault for Mac and TrueCrypt for Windows), and always power off your computer when you are done, rather than just putting it to sleep.
- Turn off all running applications before you connect to any network, particularly email. That will minimize the number of connections your computer tries to make as soon as it gets connectivity.
- Enable a VPN like Anonymizer Universal the moment you have Internet connectivity, and use it 100% of the time.
- If you can, use a clean computer with a freshly installed operating system.
- Set up a new Email account which you will only use during the trip. Do not access your real email accounts.
- Any technology you can leave behind should be left back at home.
Lance Cottrell is the Founder and Chief Scientist of Anonymizer. Follow me on Facebook and Google+.