Identity Theft Expert Discusses 10 Ways You May Get Hacked

In today's Midday Fix, 10 ways you may get hacked this summer and expert advice on how to avoid becoming a victim.

We're getting more information from Robert Siciliano, a McAfee online security expert, and he joins us from Boston this morning. Good morning.

Good morning.

Thanks so much for being with us. You look at these and you think, oh my goodness, we're at risk everywhere. So let's just begin from the top and go through them. Those hotel keys that we use other people can find a way to get into your room.

Yeah, they're electronic, and there are devices that one could purchase online or make themselves that can compromise the hotel room lock. So when you are in a hotel, you want to make sure that you do not keep anything of any value in there, and that includes the safe because others have access to the safe as well. And always make— take extra procedures at night when you're locking yourself in.

Well, apparently our cars aren't as safe as we think they are. You think when you click that button, if you have a remote lock and unlock, that you're safe, but apparently not.

Yeah, the key fob that you use to unlock your door is wireless, and those can be hacked as well. So you can— there's what's called a black box that can be purchased online as well and created by bad guys. And so always keep in mind that your car can be stolen. So it's always good to have things like OnStar, extra alarm systems, even having your mechanic install a kill switch make it difficult to steal your vehicle.

And obviously not keep your valuables out in sight for people. We heard a lot about this next one, this credit card skimming. It happened over the holidays at Target and some other big retailers as well.

Yes, skimming is a billion-dollar-a-year business for bad guys. So anytime you head up to an ATM machine, make sure that you cover up the keypad with your other hand as you're punching your PIN, because there very well could be a camera in the area recording your PIN code. When you put your card in the card slot, slot, there could be a facade, a skimming device that skims the information off the back of the magnetic strip. In the end, make sure you're paying close attention to your statements online and use a smartphone app to look at your statements daily.

Now here's one that kind of caught me and Dina off guard. Those public chargers that you see in airports and things, apparently people can use those to steal your information or hack into your phone.

Yeah, so while they are producing power for your devices, Bad guys can also plug into them and download a virus, install a virus on them, so that when you plug your device in, it basically installs a virus on your mobile.

And sometimes you're so desperate to get juice for your phone that you're just willing to use it anyway. Now, not only are they taking information from you, but maybe leaving you something that will help them to infect your devices.

That is exactly what happens on those machines. So it's most important to, um, uh, You bring your own charger so that you're self-sufficient.

Right, and then you say they leave thumb drives as well, and sometimes CD-ROMs that you pick up and you say, oh hey, look at this, I got my own thumb drive now.

So it's very easy for someone to leave a CD-ROM in a parking lot or a thumb drive that they put in the ground around a bank, let's say, and then the bank employee might pick it up, bring it inside, plug it into their bank PC, and then they infect the entire network, including your banking information. So anytime you see a thumb drive or a CD-ROM on the ground, Basically, either leave it there or shred it, destroy it.

Here's another issue, phishing apparently. They fish for victims. And you said that hackers will send you a message with a subject to kind of entice you to open up that email.

This is the time of the year when people are out and about, they're partying, let's say, and they might be at a friend's party and it's not unusual for them to have a cocktail or two. And then next thing you know, you get an email saying, "Hey, check out this video of you drunk at my party." and you click that link and eventually you're going to infect your device downloading a virus that allows a bad guy to spy on you. So just be aware that this is happening and never click on links in the body of an email.

You warn about the dangers of using public Wi-Fi, and so many of us do. We'll go to the coffee shop and plug in. Is there any way to protect ourselves from people getting into our information if we're using a public Wi-Fi system?

Yeah, the best thing to do is to download what's called is Hotspot Shield. So Hotspot Shield is a software program that encrypts your wireless connection to the internet. So if you're on a free public Wi-Fi, know that that free public Wi-Fi, the data on it can be sniffed out by bad guys. But if you use Hotspot Shield, it encrypts your communications so that nobody can see your information as it communicates through the internet.

And you have two other tips here that are kind of linked: photo geotagging and social media. So can you kind of explain how when you post a picture, you can somehow let hackers into your world?

Yeah, keeping in mind that anytime you post a photo online, when you take it with your smartphone, there's code within that picture that allows a bad guy to see wherever you are in the world. So for kids especially, for maybe females in the single scene, you wanna be very careful about what you post online 'cause your GPS location and everything else is gonna show up along with it. Also keeping in mind, you know, keep online reputation and management in mind as well, that those pictures last forever. Anything you do today, could very well affect you getting a job down the line.

You talk about this concept of clickjacking. We're all perusing social media and we say, oh, that looks interesting, and you click on it, but it certainly doesn't necessarily lead you to the place where you think it's going to.

Yeah, clickjacking is when bad guys will infect links within social media or on websites or wherever that ultimately will install a virus either on your social pages or in your browser or on your device. So you should always have antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing, and a firewall installed that monitors the clicks that you visit. McAfee has something called Site Advisor that whenever you visit particular websites, it'll let you know if that website has any infections.

Boy, Robert, such helpful information. Scary, of course, but we certainly need to hear it. Thank you so much.

Hey, my pleasure. Thank you.

If you want more information, you can visit Robert Siciliano's robertsiciliano.com for a link, or if you missed anything, you can watch this segment again and learn more about your chances of getting hacked at wgntv.com/midday.