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Cities are expanding their technological reach. Many of their efforts work to increase public protections, such as using GPS tracking to help first responders quickly locate the site of a car accident. But, in the rush for a more secure and technologically advanced city, privacy can fall by the wayside. We’ve reviewed the top cities around the world that are using technologies that may invade citizens’ privacy, so you know what to expect and what you can do. 

Big brother in Beijing, China 

China is infamous for its mass surveillance, with Beijing often serving as a testing ground for new surveillance software. The Chinese government uses internet monitoring, GPS tracking, and the “world’s biggest camera surveillance system”, with more than 170 million CCTV cameras to monitor the country’s populace. These CCTV cameras are backed by powerful facial recognition algorithms, which can track an individual down in just seven minutes. It is safe to say that you are probably being monitored anywhere you travel while in China, but a general rule is that, the higher the population, the more surveillance there is.  

The town of Yizhuang has more than 2,243 high definition security cameras, 277 vehicle recognition cameras, and 267 facial recognition cameras. It also features six patrol vehicles with mobile cameras, and enforcement officers equipped with video capture equipment. Each of these cameras is sending live video streams to a main control center 24/7—all to monitor a single 11-square-mile suburb of Beijing. 

Beijing is also preparing to roll out a social credit system in 2020. This system will award personal trustworthiness points to citizens and businesses based on their financial credit scores, as well as their personal and professional behavior. In the meantime, how the Chinese government plans to use this system to reward or punish its citizens remains a mystery. 

Always watching in Moscow, Russia 

Not one to be outdone, Russia has also embraced mass CCTV surveillance. Moscow alone has more than 170,000 cameras, making it the most surveilled city in Russia. Facial recognition software is paired with this massive network of cameras to track down persons of interest, though exactly what defines a “person of interest” is somewhat nebulous. In fact, Moscow officials recently admitted that they “can now trace the debtors’ movements,” thanks to this massive network of CCTV cameras. He declined to comment on the number of debtors who have been traced using this technology, nor the severity of their debts. 

Mass monitoring in Darwin, Australia 

Darwin, Australia is piloting a surveillance system similar to the technologies used in China, with some warning that it could evolve into a social credit system. Darwin has installed poles throughout the city outfitted with speakers, cameras, and WiFi. These monitoring stations track people and their movements all around the city, and are aided by facial recognition software. They can even respond to triggers, such as when a specific individual breaches a “virtual fence.” 

“We’ll be getting sent an alarm saying, ‘There’s a person in this area that you’ve put a virtual fence around.’ … Boom, an alert goes out to whatever authority, whether it’s us or police to say ‘Look at camera five,’” said Josh Sattler, the Darwin Council’s General Manager for Innovation, Growth, and Development services in an article with NT News.  

This system also tracks mobile phone use, web traffic, and mobile app usage—but only to help local businesses, of course. 

“[It will tell us] where people are using WiFi, what they’re using WiFi for, are they watching YouTube, etc., all these bits of information we can share with businesses… we can let businesses know ‘Hey, 80 percent of people actually use Instagram within this area of the city, between these hours,’” said Sattler. 

‘I spy’ in New York City, USA 

In an effort to assist its police force, NYC has turned to the world’s largest surveillance technology company—the Chinese state-owned Hikvision—to install the same surveillance tools being used in China. Thousands of surveillance cameras have been operating in New York City since 2014, using the same facial recognition software that enables law enforcement in Beijing to locate and track individuals within the city. These cameras are equipped with infrared sensors that help capture high resolution images even in very low light. The NYPD has direct access to this surveillance network, and monitors the footage remotely to avoid showing an obvious police presence. The full extent of the surveillance in New York is unknown, but reports indicate the NYPD is using these products on a “large scale.” 

Small-town surveillance in Hillsboro, USA 

Hillsboro, Oregon is the smallest city on this list, with a population of just over 100,000. So why is such a small town on the same list as places like Beijing, Moscow, and New York? The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, which presides over Hillsboro, recently became the first law enforcement agency in the United States to use Amazon’s AI-powered facial recognition tool, Rekognition. As this is the first real-world test of this technology, its accuracy is hotly debated. Many experts argue that this technology will likely lead to the wrongful arrest of innocent people whose only crime is bearing a resemblance to the accused. 

More than 300,000 mug shots taken at the Washington County jail have been uploaded into the Rekognition system. These pictures can be cross-referenced with images from a security camera, social media accounts, or even a deputy’s mobile device—without requiring a warrant. More than 1,000 facial recognition searches were logged into the Rekognition system by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, but public records requests show that only nine official case reports mention the use of the tool. Washington County deputies are under no imperative to note when facial recognition software assisted with an arrest, so we have no way to judge how accurate the system is. 

Your Privacy is Your Concern 

While the only way to avoid detection through the facial recognition algorithms is to hide or alter your face, there are some precautions you can take to protect your privacy when visiting these cities. As an example, you can easily obscure your digital traffic, which can help prevent the kind of tracking reported in Darwin. Strong encryption is your best protection against privacy invasive cities. Research a reliable VOIP and text messaging encryption service, and invest in a trusted VPN to shield your web and mobile traffic. Encryption may not stop state actors from intercepting your data, but it will make it nearly impossible for them to interpret it. 

Have other tips for protecting your privacy while traveling? Let us know in the comments. 

From Landline Hacking to Cryptojacking

By its very nature, cybercrime must evolve to survive. Not only are cybersecurity experts constantly working to close hacking loopholes and prevent zero-day events, but technology itself is always evolving. This means cybercriminals are constantly creating new attacks to fit new trends, while tweaking existing attacks to avoid detection. To understand how cybercrime might evolve in the future, we look back to understand how it emerged in the past. 

Cybercrime’s origins are rooted in telecommunications, with “hacker” culture as we know it today originating from “phone phreaking,” which peaked in the 1970s. Phreaking was the practice of exploiting hardware and frequency vulnerabilities in a telephone network, often for the purpose of receiving free or reduced telephone rates. As landline networks became more security savvy—and then fell out of favor—phone phreaking became less and less common. But it hasn’t been phased out completely. In 2018, a phone phreaker staged a series of creepy attacks in New York City WiFi kiosks, reminding us that the phreaks may have been forgotten, but they are certainly not gone. 

Cybercrime as we currently think of it began on November 2, 1988 when Robert Tappan Morris unleashed the Morris Worm upon the world. Much like Dr. Frankenstein, Morris did not understand what his creation was capable of. This type of self-replicating program had never been seen before outside of a research lab, and the worm quickly transformed itself into the world’s first large-scale distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Computers worldwide were overwhelmed by the program and servers ground to a halt. Although Morris quickly released the protocol for shutting the program down, the damage had been done. In 1989, Morris was the first to be prosecuted and charged in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. 

At the turn of this century, we began to see a new era of malware emerge as email gave hackers a fresh access point. The infamous ILOVEYOU worm infected 50 million computers in 2000, corrupting data and self-propagating by exploiting a user’s email contacts. Given that the infected emails were coming from an otherwise trusted source, it forced many consumers to gain perspective on cybersecurity for the very first time. With antivirus software becoming a must-have for all computer owners, cybercriminals had to get inventive once again. 

Phishing Makes A Splash 

Phishing is the practice of tricking a user into willingly providing account logins or other sensitive information. This popular style of attack began with downloadable files through email, like the ILOVEYOU worm, but quickly grew more sophisticated. Phishing emails often imitate a trusted source, like an internet or phone service provider, and often include official-looking graphics, email addresses, and dummy websites to trick the user. In some cases, these phishing attacks are so convincing that even top government officials have been fooled—something we learned all too well in 2016 when the Democratic National Committee was breached.  

With the rise of social media, we have seen a new style of phishing attack that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. Messages from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media accounts are frequent and increasingly sophisticated sources of social media phishing. 

The Rise of Ransomware 

No history of cybercrime would be complete without an examination of ransomware, a type of malware that gains access to critical files and systems and encrypts them, blocking a user from accessing their own data. Perpetrators extort the user, threatening to permanently delete the data or—in some cases—expose incriminating or embarrassing information. While ransomware has been around for decades, encryption and evasion techniques have become increasingly refined, sometimes at the hand of state actors. One of the most infamous examples of ransomware is the WannaCry attack in 2017, in which North Korean hackers used loopholes developed by the United States National Security Agency in the Windows operating system to attack more than 200,000 computers across 150 countries.  

This made ransomware an international cybersecurity boogeyman, but it shouldn’t be your top concern. Webroot security analyst Tyler Moffitt explains why it’s a complicated strategy: 

“Ransomware requires criminals to execute a successful phish, exploit, or RDP breach to deliver their payload, bypass any installed security, successfully encrypt files, and send the encryption keys to a secure command-and-control server—without making any mistakes,” Moffitt said. “Then the criminals still have to help the victim purchase and transfer the Bitcoin before finally decrypting their files. It’s a labor-intensive process and leaves tracks that must be covered up.”  

Cryptojacking: the cutting edge? 

A more recent workaround for the hard work of ransomware? Cryptojacking. Cryptojacking works by embedding JavaScript code into a website, which can then harvest the processing power of all devices that visit that site, using device processors to mine cryptocurrency for the host. This resource theft drags systems down, but often stealthily enough to go undetected; a fact that makes it very attractive to hackers. The number of cryptojacked URLs detected more than doubled from September to December of 2018, and cryptojacking attacks have officially surpassed ransomware in prevalence.  

“Cryptojacking costs basically nothing to pull off and has much less illegal footprint,” Moffitt said. “When criminals are leveraging victims’ hardware (CPU) and power for siphoned crypto, the profits are very appealing. Even with the volatility of crypto prices, large campaigns have been able to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in only a few months. It’s estimated that over 5% of the cryptocurrency Monero in circulation is the result of illicit mining.”  

Until recently, a cyptocurrency mining service called Coinhive was responsible for 60% of all cryptojacking attacks. Coinhive announced in early March 2019 that they would be shuttering the service. But this is by no means a death knell for crytpojacking—competitors are already rushing to fill the vacuum, not to mention inventing new ways to pivot off of existing cryptojacking techniques.  

Being prepared for this next generation of cybercrime requires a few things from internet users. Keeping devices protected with antivirus software is a strong first step, but awareness of current threat trends is also helpful in preventing outside actors from viewing your data. Pairing antivirus software with a trusted VPN wraps your web traffic in a tunnel of encryption, shielding it from prying eyes. A double-pronged antivirus-plus-VPN defense will stop a majority of cybercrime in its tracks, but it’s by no means where your cybersecurity plan should end.  

The best tool you have against evolving cybersecurity threats? Ongoing education. Read Webroot’s 2019 Threat Report to prepare yourself against threats on the horizon, and check back for regular cybercrime updates. 

Not that long ago, before data breaches dominated daily headlines, we felt secure with our social media apps. Conveniently, every website seemed to allow logging in with Facebook or Twitter instead of creating a whole new password, and families of apps quickly became their own industry. Third-party apps and games on social media platforms (remember Farmville on Facebook?) were allowed profile access en masse. Trivia games, horoscope predictions, personality quizzes — all seemingly secure and engaging diversions — let social media users enable some type of third-party app.  

Unfortunately, we now know that this left many of us, and our data, exposed to a potential breach. 

So we turned to Randy Abrams, Webroot’s Sr. Security Analyst, for insights on how to keep third-party app breaches in check. The trick to keeping yourself and your loved ones safe? Information silos, both on and off of social media. 

“As a rule, I leave my apps in silos, meaning I severely limit their connectivity level — especially when it comes to accessing my mobile device, “Abrams says. “Apps for email, texting, and calling people do have a reasonable need for access to your contacts on the phone. Most other apps, such as social media apps do not need to be able to look up your unsuspecting friends.”  

Limiting the access your apps have to their direct functions will help keep you and your loved ones safe. Here’s how to get it done. 

Mobile App Permissions 

Limiting your app’s permissions may seem like a chore, but it is the best way to keep breaches from expanding in scope. We’ve put together a mobile app permissions crash course to help you silo your sensitive data quickly and easily. 

For Android Users 

To monitor and edit an existing application’s accessibility permissions on your device, go to your Android’s settings and tap Apps & Notifications. From there, you will be able to locate all the applications that are active on your device. When you’ve located the application whose permissions you would like to edit, simply tap the app and then tap “Permissions” to view and edit its current permission settings. 

To review an application’s accessibility permissions before you install it on your device from the Google Play Store, tap on the app you’d like to install and click Read more to bring up its detail page. Scroll to the bottom and tap App permissions to review the app’s requested permissions. After you install and open the application for the first time, you will be prompted to allow or deny application permissions (like access to your contacts or location). You can always edit the application’s existing permissions later using the steps outlined above. 

For iOS Users 

To monitor and edit an existing application’s accessibility permissions on your device, go to the settings app Privacy to see all the permissions available on your phone (like location services and camera access). Select the permission set you would like to review to see all of the applications with access, and revoke any permissions you’re not comfortable with. 

To review an application’s accessibility permissions at install, simply open the app and begin using it. The app will request permissions, which you can either allow or deny. You can always revoke permissions after they have been granted by following the steps outlined above. 

Preventing social media applications from gaining unnecessary access to your mobile data could help stop data breaches from spreading. But it won’t stop the breaches themselves from happening. Leaving apps enabled entails large-scale security issues — not only for ourselves, but also for friends and family connected with us through social media. When we connect apps to our social media profiles, we expose not just our information, but the shared information of a broader network of connections — one that expands well beyond our immediate circles. In a startling example, only 53 Facebook users in Australia downloaded Cambridge Analytica’s infamous thisisyourdigitallife app, but a total of 311,127 network connections had their data exposed through those users. That amount of collateral damage is nothing to scoff at. 

Removing Third Party Apps 

“Facebook is the company best known for leaking extensive amounts of data about users, usually by default privacy settings that allow third-party apps to access as much user data as possible,” says Abrams. “Most users had no idea they could control some of what is shared and would have a difficult time navigating the maze to the settings.” 

Facebook 

Facebook made a few reform efforts to help make managing third-party access to your account a little bit easier. Click on Settings from the account dropdown menu, and then select Apps and Websites. This should take you to a dashboard that will show your active, expired, and removed apps. It will also give you the option to turn off the capability for any third-party apps to connect with your profile. 

Twitter 

From your account dropdown, click on Settings and privacy. Click on the Apps and devices tab, which will show all of the apps connected to your account. You can see the specific permissions that each app has under the app name and description. To disconnect an app from your account, click the Revoke access button next to the app icon. 

Instagram 

From a web browser, log in to your account and click the gear icon next the Edit Profile button. Select Authorized Apps to see all of the apps connected to your account. Click the Revoke Access button under an app to remove it from your account. 

Building Secure Social Media Habits 

Monitoring the access levels of your connected apps is a good start to keeping yourself and your loved ones secure, but it’s not always enough. 

“It must be assumed that all third-party apps are collecting all of the information on the platform, regardless of privacy settings,” warns Abrams. 

Establishing secure social media habits will continue to help keep you secure after you’ve reviewed your app permissions. This means conducting regular audits of the third-party app permissions associated with all of your social media accounts and — slightly more arduously — thoroughly reading the privacy policies of any third party apps before you connect them. 

“If a person is going to use apps in conjunction with social media platforms, it’s important to understand their privacy policies,” say Abrams. “Unfortunately, with many apps, the privacy policy may not be shown until the app has been installed, and may not even be visible on the developer’s website. When the policy can be located, you’ll often find the user’s friends’ privacy is collateral damage in the agreement. It is up to the individual choosing to decide if their friends’ privacy is acceptable collateral damage. Unfortunately, few know how to obtain the information required to make an informed decision. 

“Without reading the privacy policies you cannot know to what extent your friends’ private information will be shared, “adds Abrams. “Remember, it isn’t just their names you are sharing, it is part of the data aggregation they are already subjected to. Simply letting an app know you are friends provides more information than just their names. It helps app companies build more robust profiles.” 

Stay Vigilant and Informed 

Don’t allow your data or your network to be used beyond your wishes or against your will. Take charge of your data security, and protect your friends by conducting regular audits of your third-party app permissions. Before you connect any new apps, settle down with a little light reading and thoroughly vet their privacy policy. Given how intertwined our digital lives have become, the cybersecurity of our closest friends and loved ones could well depend on it. 

This spring, many of us will roll up our sleeves and get down to business decluttering our homes. Garage sales will be held, basement storage rooms will be re-organized, and donations will be made. 

Shouldn’t the same thing happen in our digital lives? After all, the average American will spend the bulk of their waking hours parked in front of some sort of screen—flipping , swiping, and clicking away. A little tidying up of data and online habits can go a long way toward enhancing your digital security andpeace of mind. 

So here are a few tips for tidying up your tech designed to make you ask not only: “Does this bring me joy?” but also, “does this make me more secure?”  If not, consider purging apps, connections, and permissions that could leave you more susceptible to a breach. If you answer yes, make sure you’re taking the necessary steps to protect it.

Turn off Bluetooth when it’s not in use

Since the Blueborne family of vulnerabilities was discovered in 2017, deactivating Bluetooth when not in use has become standard security advice. With the increasing adoption of home IoT devices, the consequences of ignoring that advice have only risen. 

Bluetooth connections are like a lonely person on a dating site; they’re in constant search of a connection. When Bluetooth-enabled devices seek out the wrong sources—that of a cybercriminal, say—they are vulnerable to exploitation.

“Smart speakers and other IoT devices may introduce convenience to our daily lives,” says Webroot Security Analyst Tyler Moffitt. “But they’re also a calculated risk, and even more so for knock-off devices whose manufacturers don’t pay proper attention to security. Minimizing the time Bluetooth is on helps to manage that risk.”

Or, as Webroot VP of engineering David Dufour put it to Wired magazine soon after the discovery of Blueborne, “For attackers, it’s Candyland.”

Use a VPN to cloak your digital footprint

Shrouding your connection in a virtual private network (VPN) is especially important when accessing public or unsecured WiFi networks. Again, we make a trade-off between convenience and security when logging on to these “free” networks. 

Without additional protection, cybercriminals can spy on these unencrypted connections either by commandeering the router or by creating their own spoof of a legitimate WiFi hotspot, in a variation of a man-in-the-middle attack. From here, they’re free to monitor the data flowing between your device and the network. 

“It’s more than just the privacy violation of being able to see what you’re doing and where you’re going online,” Moffitt explains. “Cybercriminals can lift sensitive data like banking login credentials and drop ransomware or other malicious payloads like cryptojackers.”

A VPN encrypts the traffic between your device and the router, ensuring your digital footprint is shielded from prying eyes. 

Keep apps updated with the latest software

While some apps are inherently sketchy, and users shouldn’t expect the app creators behind them to prioritize security, others introduce vulnerabilities inadvertently. When responsibly run, app developers address these security gaps through software updates.

Take the cultural phenomenon Fortnite, for example. The game that drove its parent company, Epic Games, to an $8 billion valuation was found at the beginning of the year to contain multiple vulnerabilities that would have allowed malicious actors to take over player accounts, make in-game purchases, and join conversations. Epic Games was quick to issue “a responsibly deployed” fix, but in this and similar instances, users are only protected after installing the suggested updates.

“I always recommend users keep both their apps and their mobile operating systems up to date,” says Moffit. “This is made easier by turning on automatic updates wherever possible and only downloading apps from reputable app stores, so you increase the chances that updates are timely.”

For more tips on protecting your smartphone from mobile malware, see our complete list of recommendations here.

Set up automatic cloud backups

Purging unused apps is a good principle for spring cybersecurity cleaning – like a box of old clothes you haven’t worn in decades, unused apps represent digital data containers you no longer need. But what about all that data you’d hate to lose—the pictures, videos, documents, and other files you’d be devastated to see disappear? Protecting that trove of data is another core tenant for tidying up your tech. 

Ransomware is one prime reason for keeping up-to-date backups of valuable data. It can strike anyone from college students to cities, and the list of those who’ve been burned is long and distinguished.

“The combination of an antivirus and a cloud backup and recovery solution is an effective one-two punch against ransomware,” Moffit says. “On the one hand, you make your device more difficult to infect. On the other, you become a less attractive target because you’re unlikely to pay a ransom to recover data that’s already backed up to the cloud and out of reach for ransomware.”

Natural disasters and device theft—two contingencies even the tightest cybersecurity can’t account for—are prime reasons to make sure backups are in place sooner, rather than later. Cloud backup is more secure and affordable than ever, so it makes sense to back up anything you couldn’t stand to lose, before it’s too late. Want more tips for cybersecurity spring cleaning? Download Webroot’s full checklist for tidying up your tech.

The last decade has been one of digital revolution, leading to the rapid adoption of new technology standards, often without the consideration of privacy ramifications. This has left many of us with a less-than-secure trail of digital breadcrumbs—something cybercriminals are more than aware of. Identity theft is by no means a new problem, but the technology revolution has created what some are calling a “global epidemic.”

Securing your digital identity is more important now than ever, and Webroot can help you start.

What is a Digital Identity?

The first step in locking down your digital identity is understanding what it is. A digital identity is the combination of any and all identifying information that can connect a digital persona to an actual person. Digital identities are largely comprised of information freely shared by the user, with social media accounts generally providing the largest amount of data. Other online services like Etsy and eBay, as well as your email and online banking accounts, also contribute to your digital identity. Realistically, any information that can be linked back to you, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, is part of your digital identity.

Digital Identity Theft

Digital identity theft occurs in several ways. A common tactic is social media fraud, where a hacker will impersonate a user by compromising an existing social media account, often messaging friends and family of the user requesting money or additional account information. If unable to gain full control of a genuine social media account, identity thieves will often set up a dummy social media account and impersonate the user using it.

A less widely-known form of digital identity fraud is internet-of-things (IoT) identity theft, where an attacker gains access to an IoT device with weak security protocols and exploits it to gain access to a higher priority device connected to the same network. Another growing threat is “SIM swapping”— an attack that involves tricking a mobile provider into swapping a legitimate phone number over to an illegitimate SIM card, granting the attacker access to SMS-enabled two-factor authentication (2FA) efforts.

Even those who don’t consider themselves targets should be aware of these tactics and take steps to lock down their digital identities.

Locking it Down

Reviewing your social media accounts’ privacy settings is one of the easiest things you can do to cut opportunistic identity thieves off from the start. Set your share settings to friends only, and scrub any identifying information that could be used for security clearance — things like your high school, hometown, or pets’ names. Only add people you personally know and if someone sends you a suspicious link, don’t click it! Phishing, through email or social media messages, remains one of the most prevalent causes of digital identity theft in the world. But your digital identity can be compromised in the physical world as well — old computers that haven’t been properly wiped provide an easy opportunity hackers won’t pass up. Always take your outdated devices to a local computer hardware store to have them wiped before recycling or donating them.

The Right Tools for the Job

This is just the start of a proper digital identity lock-down. Given the sensitive nature of these hacks, we asked Webroot Security Analyst Tyler Moffitt his thoughts on how consumers can protect their digital identities.

“Two-factor authentication in combination with a trusted virtual private network, or VPN, is the crown jewel of privacy lock-down,” Tyler said. “Especially if you use an authenticator app for codes instead of SMS authentication. A VPN is definitely a must… but you can still fall for phishing attempts using a VPN. Using two-factor authentication on all your accounts while using VPN is about as secure as you can get.”

2FA provides an additional level of security to your accounts, proactively verifying that you are actually the one attempting to access the account. 2FA often uses predetermined, secure codes and geolocation data to determine a user’s identity.

Because 2FA acts as a trusted gatekeeper, do your research before you commit to a solution. You’ll find some offerings that bundle 2FA with a secure password manager, making the commitment to cybersecurity a little bit easier. When making your choice, remember that using SMS-enabled 2FA could leave you vulnerable to SIM swapping, so though it is more secure than not using 2FA at all, it is among the least secure of 2FA strategies.

VPNs wrap your data in a cocoon of encryption, keeping it out of sight of prying eyes. This is particularly important when using public WiFi networks, since that’s when your data is at its most vulnerable. Many VPNs are available online, including some free options, but this is yet another instance of getting what you pay for. Many free VPNs are not truly private, with some selling your data to the highest bidder. Keeping your family secure behind a VPN means finding a solution that provides you with the type of comfort that only comes with trust.

The two things that only you can do to keep your identity secure? Constant vigilance and continuous education. Visit the Home+Mobile page on the Webroot blog for a host of resources to help keep you and your family safe online—at home and on the go. 

The True Cost of Free WiFi

Ease-of-access is a true double-edged sword. Like all powerful technologies, WiFi (public WiFi in particular) can be easily exploited. You may have read about attacks on publicly accessible WiFi networks, yet studies show that more than 70% of participants admit to accessing their personal email through public WiFi. WiFi vulnerabilities aren’t going away anytime soon—in 2017, the WPA2 security protocol used by essentially all modern WiFi networks was found to have a critical security flaw that allowed attackers to intercept passwords, e-mails and other data.

So what are the most commonly seen attacks via free WiFi, and how can we protect ourselves and our families? We turned to Tyler Moffitt, Webroot’s Sr. Threat Research Analyst, for answers.

Common Public WiFi Threats

“Criminals are either taking over a free WiFi hotspot at the router level, or creating a fake WiFi hotspot that’s meant to look like the legitimate one,” explained Moffitt. “The purpose of these man-in-the-middle attacks is to allow attackers to see and copy all of the traffic from the devices connected to the WiFi they control.”

Basic security protocols often aren’t enough to protect users’ data.

“Even with HTTPS sites where some data is encrypted, much of it is still readable,” Moffitt said. “Beyond just seeing where you surf and all the login credentials, criminals also have access to your device and can drop malicious payloads like ransomware.”

We are now seeing these attacks evolve, with cryptojacking becoming a particularly lucrative exploitation model for public WiFi networks. Cryptojacking is seen as a “low risk” attack as an attacker siphons a victim’s computer processing power, something far less likely to be detected and tracked than a traditional malware or ransomware attack. This was particularly notable in a 2017 cryptojacking attack that targeted Starbucks customers, which went uncorrected until Noah Dinkin—a tech company CEO—noticed a delay when connecting to the shop’s WiFi. Dinkin took it upon himself to investigate

Hi @Starbucks @StarbucksAr did you know that your in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires forces a 10 second delay when you first connect to the wifi so it can mine bitcoin using a customer's laptop? Feels a little off-brand.. cc @GMFlickinger pic.twitter.com/VkVVdSfUtT

— Noah Dinkin (@imnoah) December 2, 2017

It’s not just coffee shops that are being targeted. Airports, hotels, and convention centers are particularly prime targets due to their high  traffic. To demonstrate the power of a targeted attack in a conference setting, a security experiment was conducted at the 2017 RSA Conference. Surprisingly, even at an IT security conference, white hat hackers were able to trick 4,499 attendees into connecting to their rogue WiFi access point. The targeting of high-traffic, travel-focused locations means that many frequent travelers will leave themselves exposed at some point by connecting to public WiFi options—even though they may know better.

How to Detect the Threat

What are the telltale signs of a compromised system?

“With cryptomining, you will definitely notice that your machine will start acting slow, the fans will kick on full blast, and the CPU will increase to 100 percent, usually the browser being the culprit,” Moffitt said. “But there are few signs of a man-in-the-middle attack, where wireless network traffic is spied on for credentials and financial information. You won’t notice a thing, as your computer is just connecting to the router like normal. All information is being observed by someone in control of the router.”

With one recent attack in 2018 alone affecting 500,000 WiFi routers, the need for WiFi security has never been stronger.

Protecting Yourself on the Go

You can take steps to keep your data secure; the first of which is being sure that you have a VPN installed and protecting your devices. Nothing else will as effectively encrypt and shield your traffic on a public network.

“Using a VPN is the most impactful way to combat the dangers of free WiFi,” Moffitt said. “Think of VPN as a tunnel that shelters all of your information going in and out of your device. The traffic is encrypted so there is no way that criminals can read the information you are sending.”

“I use a VPN on my phone when I’m on the go,” he continued. “It’s really easy to use and you make sure all your data is private and not visible to prying eyes.”

But be sure to research any VPN before you commit to ensure it is trustworthy. It’s important to review the vendor’s privacy policy to make sure the VPN does not monitor or retain logs of your activities. Remember that, with security software and apps, you generally get what you pay for.

While free VPN apps will shield your data from the router you are connecting to, they may still spy on you and sell your information,” Moffitt said.

What does this all mean for you? If there is no such thing as free lunch, then there is definitely no such thing as free WiFi. The true cost just might be your online security and privacy.

Stay vigilant, secure all of your web traffic behind a trusted VPN, and check back here often for the latest in cybersecurity updates