Beware of hotel Wi-Fi — Russian hackers are stealing information from it

By Lulu Chang Published August 12, 2017

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Hotel guests already have enough anxiety-inducing fodder to make their stays a bit less than desirable. From the odd stain on the carpet to the questionable bedspread to the toilet that just won’t stop flushing (or won’t flush at all), there are plenty of reasons to think twice about even the nicest of temporary residences. And now, there’s one more.

As per a new report from security firm FireEye, a Russian hacker group called APT28, or Fancy Bear, has been targeting hotel Wi-Fi networks to spy on guests. And in recent months, the group has reportedly begun to use a leaked NSA hacking tool to make their attacks more sophisticated still.

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“FireEye has moderate confidence that a campaign targeting the hospitality sector is attributed to Russian actor APT28,” the firm wrote. “We believe this activity, which dates back to at least July 2017, was intended to target travelers to hotels throughout Europe and the Middle East.”

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Perhaps most alarming is the discovery that once hackers succeeded in tapping into hotel Wi-Fi, they managed to take guests’ usernames and passwords completely passively. In fact, guests didn’t even have to type in their sensitive data to have it stolen.

“It’s definitely a new technique,” Ben Read, the leader of FireEye’s espionage research team told Wired. “It’s a much more passive way to collect on people. You can just sit there and intercept stuff from the Wi-Fi traffic.”

FireEye believes that the hackers managed to infiltrate hotel networks via phishing emails that contained infected attachments and malicious Microsoft Word macros. Once they were in a hotel Wi-Fi network, they would then launch NSA hacking tool EternalBlue, which was leaked earlier in 2017. This tool allowed them to spread their control throughout the network, finally reaching servers responsible for the corporate and guest Wi-Fi networks.

Finally, APT28 is said to have used a network-hacking tool known as Responder, which gave them access to user credentials.

And if you think you can avoid these sorts of attacks by staying at nicer hotels, think again. “These were not super expensive places, but also not the Holiday Inn,” FireEye’s Read said. “They’re the type of hotel a distinguished visitor would stay in when they’re on corporate travel or diplomatic business.”

So what can you do to protect yourself? FireEye recommends bringing your own wireless hot spot to steer clear of hotel Wi-Fi altogether. Just another thing you’ll have to remember to pack for your next trip.

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