While the rest of us soak up the sun or frantically shop for gifts, hackers are having a field day. The holidays are a perfect storm of activity and distraction, so it’s no wonder cyberattack incidents spike during such times.
What methods do hackers use to endanger your digital safety during the holiday season? What should you do not to become a victim? We’ll clue you in on everything you need to ensure hackers’ antics don’t impact your R&R.
A Deep Bag of Tricks
Hackers continue to develop devious and surprisingly creative ways of making a dishonest living at holiday-goers’ expense. Here are the most common attacks you’ll want to recognize and avoid.
Phishing
Phishing is a social engineering attack that convinces people to take action, usually leading them to give up their sensitive personal info or download malware. It’s particularly effective during peak shopping periods since people don’t have time or patience to check specifics.
Many emails hackers send during the holidays usually claim to come from a delivery service having trouble with your order. Others impersonate booking companies or contain links to fake charity websites to get you to donate and jeopardize your personal information.
Fake websites
Another popular method is to create believable copies of popular shopping websites or set up fake ones with deals that look too good to be true. Sometimes, they’ll get you to visit such sites through links in phishing emails. They also count on some people misspelling the site’s name & create convincing copies since few bother to check.
Such a site may automatically download harmful malware onto your device or trick you into exposing payment information.
Exploiting Public Wi-Fi
Tourist traps and cozy cafés conveniently offer free Wi-Fi to get you to stay longer. You may still end up paying, as such networks are not secure and susceptible to various attacks. Hackers can use them to eavesdrop and analyze traffic, capturing any usernames and passwords you might enter.
Moreover, hackers may create malicious Wi-Fi hotspots that mimic a restaurant or bookstore’s legitimate connection. This gives cyber crooks free rein to intercept or even alter any info you send to internet services, shopping apps, etc., while connected to their fake network. For example, when traveling, using an eSIM can help you stay secure by connecting directly to cellular networks, reducing your reliance on potentially unsafe public Wi-Fi hotspots.
Juice Jacking
What do you get when combining the holidays, packed airports, and grumpy travelers? The perfect place for another sophisticated hacking method. Juice jacking involves setting up charging stations equipped with USB slots.
Such stations seem harmless, but plugging a smartphone or laptop in via USB triggers a malware download. The effects vary from attaining complete remote access to the device and its contents to turning it into a bot that helps launch DDoS attacks.
Thwarting the Threats
Keeping your cool during times of stress & excitement is the greatest thing you can do to maintain digital safety. Taking a minute to verify an email sender or shopping site is legitimate before acting further is a much smaller inconvenience than the consequences of not doing so.
Hackers also ramp attacks on companies up on holidays, causing data breaches that expose millions of user accounts. You can’t control this. However, you can set up a password manager beforehand to prevent unauthorized access to affected accounts.
Password managers tackle all the pain points hackers love to exploit. They create unique, random passwords instantly. This feature ensures passwords are impossible to brute-force and prevents a single breach from affecting accounts that might have previously shared passwords.
Managers store all passwords in an encrypted format, making them unreadable even if someone infects your device. Finally, reliable password managers let you set up multi-factor authentication for important accounts, protecting them from unauthorized access until you change a breached password.
It’s good to use your smartphone’s data for internet access if you’re traveling domestically. Dedicated hotspots and local SIM cards work well abroad. If Wi-Fi is your only option, activating the mobile VPN before using it will encrypt the connection and make it safer.
As for Juice jacking, just avoid USB-based chargers and go with good old AC instead. Alternatively, top up all your devices before leaving for the airport and bring a power bank to recharge on the go.
Conclusion
Digital holiday heists are so successful because hackers are banking on people’s lack of focus and vigilance. Now that you know what to pay attention to, you can avoid the risks and savor a well-deserved vacation.
