Hawaii hotels

Security Warning at Business Centers Extends to Hawaii Hotels

We haven’t used hotel business centers in a long time. Do people even use them any longer? Well according to a recent warning from the US Secret Service, you might want to consider avoiding hotel business centers (even here in Hawaii) at least for now.

Criminals have installed key loggers on hotel business center computers specifically to steal information from unsuspecting travelers when they’re away from home and especially susceptible. A non public government advisory that was picked up by a reputable network security analyst pointed to the vulnerability at hotels in particular. It was posted after suspects were arrested in Texas in conjunction with key loggers installed at major hotel chains.

The next hotel business center you visit may be completely locked down and secure, or it could be wide open and totally overrun with malware. The trouble is that there is no easy way for the average guest to know for sure.

Key logger devices and software work by capturing the keys guests type on a hotel or other public computer. That circumvents even SSL (secure) internet connections and can be used to collect otherwise secret credentials among other things.

We’re not sure how this warning impacts other public computers such as those on cruise ships or even at Kinko’s, nor do we know how well companies monitor against this type of intrusion. But as this was not widely reported in the travel trade, we wanted to let you know.

 

2 thoughts on “Security Warning at Business Centers Extends to Hawaii Hotels”

  1. Unfortunately, people believe they are safe when they use their Cell phones and tablets. The cellular network or free Wi-Fi is not very secure either! Google “man in the middle” attacks. This is why you need to use a VPN for all your data usage away from Home!

    1. True enough Ed. Since 4g things got a lot less secure.

      That having been said MIIM attacks on secure https connections like FB, Google and most email is possible but not likely. We have also found VPN to be sometimes quite problematic. And you’d better trust your VPN.

      Aloha.

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