I’m at airports nearly every week and I have to remain ultra-aware of the risks lurking in every airport. Here are a few things to be vigilant about so your phone or financials aren’t compromised.
- Beware “free” wifi. Almost every airport has free wifi, but you need to make sure you are using the official airport wifi. The best ways to find out which one to use is look for signs in the airport or check their official website. For example, the San Francisco website say their wifi is named “#SFO FREE WIFI” (https://www.flysfo.com/passengers/services-amenities/wi-fi) so if I see a wifi named “SFO-WIFI” or “#SFO FREE WIFI1” then I should be worried that someone is pretending to be the airport wifi. In future newsletters I will talk about VPNs (a technical way to secure the information sent by your phone or computer), but for now just know to be careful.
- Don’t talk about sensitive or confidential information. I know this seems obvious, but I hear people on phone calls all the time talking about information that should be told privately. Don’t ever read your credit card number over the phone to someone if there are people around. This happens more than you think because people are trying to replan trips when there’s been a delay.
- Don’t use the USB charging ports (unless you have a special USB data blocking device). The USB ports can be compromised with a technique called “juice jacking” as per this FCC alert (https://www.fcc.gov/juice-jacking-tips-to-avoid-it). This advice applies to any USB you see at malls, coffee shops, etc. Instead use a power charger and if you don’t have one, ask to borrow one for a few minutes. Just a few weeks ago I leant my charger and power convertor to someone while I was at the Frankfurt airport. I always pack a power bank and power charger in my purse or backpack just in case my luggage is required to be stowed in the cargo hold. USB data blocker on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4lkVbz6