My job requires me to travel from time to time. When I do travel for work purposes I normally have to travel by air to the location I am required to go. I am usually very careful when I make my airline reservations. However, when I made my flight arrangements for a trip I took last week I made a mistake which resulted in a five hour overlay. Needless to say, I had a lot of time to waste in an airport that I really did not want to be at.
During that long stretch of time, I started to think about a video that I watched on You Tube a couple of months back. The video is of a presentation called No-Tech Hacking which is presented by a computer security expert named Johnny Long. I have inserted the video, which I obtained from You Tube, below for those that would like to watch it.
What is so interesting about the presentation is that Johnny Long informs the audience on how easy it is to obtain information on people, organizations, and / or businesses by observing the actions of others and / or by paying attention to what is in plain view. I used to think that attackers (scammers, hackers, and cyber terrorists) would obtain personal information by using technical methods until I watched Johnny Long's presentation. What Johnny Long reveals is that people often give up their private information without even knowing it.
For example, when I was sitting in the airport waiting for my connecting flight I was able to learn a lot about the people around me. I was able to observe a man enter his password on his Mobile device not once or twice, but three times. By the way, I had it memorized after the second time. Additionally, I was able to view the screens of many laptops and many had what appeared to be work related information on their screens.
So what can we all learn from this? What I learned is that I
have to be more careful about concealing my personal information when I am in
public or private places. Many may think I am being paranoid, but just remember
that attackers will use a variety of methods to try and obtain your personal
information so they can use it for malicious purposes. Even if it means using a
method that is as simple as observing your actions in an airport.
Resources:
Basic204. (2008,
September 11). No-tech hacking [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CWrzVJYLWw
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