Avoid sending any messages with passwords or private data over SMS channels. Any messages you send or receive could be intercepted by an attacker, including voice calls. Two-factor codes aren’t the only data that can be intercepted. As an alternative, some sites offer a way to download two-factor backup codes, but you should ensure that they are stored in a safe location while you travel. To avoid this attack, don’t authenticate into any site that uses a text message as its multifactor step, if possible. It’s the last step in authentication, but this code can be intercepted by attackers who already have the targeted user’s account name and password. Banks implement two-factor authentication using an SMS message that contains a 4-6-digit code sent to an account holder. The biggest target for SS7 attackers is banking accounts. It’s this weakness that has given attackers access to bank accounts across Europe and the Middle East, and it can be used to eavesdrop on phone calls. However, SS7 has no validation checks that ensure the system requesting route information is a legitimate telecom or an attacker. SS7 is the protocol used between different telecoms to ensure standard communication is implemented and messages from, for instance, AT&T can travel across Verizon’s cell towers. During transmission, a message must hop from cell tower to cell tower and often switch carriers to reach its destination. With mobile data transmission, a user could be in another state or even another country, and SS7 polls each telecom along a path to determine the best route for data to reach the recipient. 7) protocol is used by telecoms to route a message from the sender to the recipient. Researchers revealed in late 2018 that a severe vulnerability was found in the protocol used to route text messages. When traveling to China, your data will be encrypted at the point of transmission and protected from eavesdropping and MitM attacks. is one such application that can be installed on mobile devices, desktops and your Amazon Fire. Your data transmission could use HTTPS, but to ensure that your data is protected, a VPN “wrapper” packages your data with an additional layer of encryption. Think of VPN as encryption within encryption. If the web server administrator fails to follow best practices, a VPN connection “tunnels” data in an encrypted wrapper to keep it secure. VPN connections add a layer of protection against downgrade attacks and data leaks from web servers that transmit data in cleartext. Instead of identifying if every server uses secure ciphers, users can opt for VPN. Attackers use MitM attacks for eavesdropping and are common on open public Wi-Fi connections, especially where attackers can create malicious hotspots to trick travelers. Older cipher libraries are generally left active for backwards compatibility, but it leaves users open to downgrade attacks, which is a form of a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack. Deprecated encryption ciphers determined to be cryptographically insecure should no longer be supported by a web server, but many administrators leave them active unbeknownst to the common user. The misconception is that all encrypted HTTPS connections protect data from eavesdropping, but there are caveats to this train of thought. You might already know to always look for an HTTPS connection when communicating with a web server, which indicates that data transmission is encrypted using SSL/TLS. Aside from never using your devices abroad (which is likely unrealistic in the current digital age), you can take precautions before traveling to protect your data and devices from cyberattacks. Traveling abroad to any country is an exciting adventure, but China’s state-sponsored cyberattacks and its notorious data snooping and surveillance make it extremely important for travelers to protect their data. Tuesday Augin Best Practices by Jennifer Marsh Protecting Your Data While Traveling to China
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