Beware of Cyber Hackers While Travelling to the Airports

Business travelers should think twice before connecting their company device to the Wi-Fi network connections at the airport, as this may invite all sorts of cybersecurity issues. Though there is always a threat involved on all Wi-Fi networks that are insecure, few airports have higher vulnerabilities than the others as per the Wednesday report of Coronet. So, professionals must be extra cautious while travelling to those airports.

The report further noted that, it is far easier for the attackers to gain access and then exploit the data from the devices that are connected to the Wi-Fi networks of airport than getting an access in the confined and secured office premises. Hackers normally use poor cyber security as well as insecure Wi-Fi of many airports for injecting the advanced network vulnerabilities such as ARP poisoning, Evil Twins, compromised routers, captive portals, VPN gaps, and honeypots.

Coronet, a Cloud Security Company, has prepared a list of American airports that are most cyber insecure. And San Diego comes first in that list. Coronet considered 5-months data from January of 45 airports that are busiest, and then gave threat index score to each of the 45 airports on the basis of device vulnerability as well as risks from Wi-Fi network. This was published by fortune.com on July 18, 2018.

According to Coronet's CISO and founder, Dror Liwer, "far too many U.S. airports have sacrificed the security of their Wi-Fi networks for consumer convenience". Thus, the business travelers not only put their devices at risk, but also the company's complete digital infrastructure is in danger every time they get connected to the Wi-Fi that is improperly configured, unsecured or unencrypted.

As per Dror Liwer, co-founder and chief security officer of Coronet, "the main reason airports are problematic is because most people are taking convenience over security".

International Airport of San Diego got a score of 10 on 10, which in any case is higher than all the other airports. Coronet says, an ARP Poisoning attack was running in Wi-Fi access point named"#SANfreewifi" in International Airport of San Diego. The chance of getting connected to a high-risk network in International Airport of San Diego is 11%, whereas the chance to get connected to a medium-risk network is 30%. None of the other airports in America comes near to such percentage of high-risk odds.

The safest international airports are Raleigh Durham and Chicago's Midway having scores of 4.9 each. Still, Coronet suggests that the users should take extra care at the less vulnerable hubs too.

» SPAMfighter News - 7/27/2018