Stop, Think and Connect on Public Wi-Fi @HotspotShield

Well, Samsung is set to launch the highly anticipated Galaxy S4 smartphone tonight, which some say could see as many as 10 million units a month being sold. Well, with more and more people using their mobile devices to store information worth stealing, they've become a target for mobile hacking. Joining me today is Robert Siciliano. He's the identity theft an online security expert from Hotspot Shield. Robert, great to see you.

Thank you.

Robert, the reason we wanted to do this segment is because everyone loves their smartphones and everyone loves their tablet, but often we don't think about mobile security. So let me ask you, how worried are you about someone hacking into your phone?

Well, you know, the bad guys are paying attention, and More and more people are using their smartphones, which essentially are little computers, and they act just like a PC does. And as we know, PCs are being hacked every single day. Uh, the Android devices are more vulnerable than, say, an iPhone, but all devices are vulnerable on, say, free public Wi-Fi.

And who's trying to steal the information, Robert? What are they looking for?

Well, generally, the bad guy's motivation is financial gain. When they see your device out there in the wild, when they see your wireless connection to the internet, when they see your device online connected to a website, they try to burrow into your device. They're trying to access your personal information. They're looking for usernames and passwords. They're looking for Social Security numbers or credit card numbers or social insurance numbers. The idea is to turn that data into cash.

All right. So when you look at that data, often it is found on banking websites. So let me ask you, if you're in an unsecure area especially, would you be logging on to your online banking, for example?

So the only way that I'd log in to, say, online banking or to place an order with a credit card online, whether it's wired or wirelessly, is to make sure that number one, that the site that I'm going to is secure. So in the address bar, it should say HTTPS, which means it's a secure page. And then beyond that, using a virtual private network, which essentially is a software program that you run on your device that basically encrypts your connection to the internet, making sure, especially like on free public Wi-Fi, that your data is encrypted and protected so it can't be sniffed out by the bad guy.

And that's what I wanted to know. Public hotspots. Hotspots, right? They're not secure. So what can you look at on the website and what can't you look at?

Or you should look at? So you can go anywhere on the site. You know, you can tool around, you can go to each page, no problem. But it's when you begin to enter that personal information, that's where you have to be concerned, whether it's a username and a password, whether it's entering your credit card number or any other proprietary data. Again, in the address bar, HTTPS means secure. Otherwise, you know, a virtual private network is a tunnel that essentially you go through on your own device through that free wireless connection that encrypts and protects your information as it travels through that unsecured network.

Now you said that Android is more vulnerable than iPhones. What's your take on BlackBerry? Because BlackBerry has been seen as being one of the more secure devices.

Yeah, so BlackBerry's, uh, inherently are much more secure than say an Android device. But always keep in mind that no matter what the device is, whether it's an Android or a BlackBerry or an iPhone, that number one, we can all fall victim to all the same different scams. It doesn't matter what the device is. So if you get a phishing email or if you get a text message to click a link, all of these things can infect your device. In addition to that, of course, it doesn't matter, you know, what the device is. Again, if it's an unsecured wireless connection to the internet, Again, you know, we're all vulnerable in that regard.

Mm-hmm. Robert, when you took a look at social media, Facebook for example, I mean, Colin Powell's Facebook page got hacked into. Why is it so easy for these guys to get into this site?

So one of the, one of the easiest ways, of course, is that we use really lame, easy-to-guess, easy-to-crack passwords. Password is not a good password. Uh, princess is not a good password. You know, your name, your kids' names, your pets' names. Fido is not a good password. And bad guys know this, and they use tools to crack our passwords. So basically every word in the dictionary as a password can be cracked, 'cause there are what's called dictionary attacks. And dictionary attacks use known passwords and words in the dictionary, and they run the software via username and password to basically use all available potential passwords. 123456 is a very common password. Yeah. So, and the bad guys know all this, and, and it's like a guessing game for them, uh, like solving a puzzle. And again, they use software technology to try to crack and break those passwords as well, and that's often how they're compromised.

Robert, we only have about 30 seconds or so. What are the biggest trending scams that you see out there right now that we should be aware of?

Well, making sure that people are aware of all the different phishing emails, the smishing texts we receive. Uh, there are a number of viruses out there. Making sure that your operating system is updated to the latest and greatest. Make sure that your browser is updated as well, and making sure that you're using a a virtual private network on your device, something like Hotspot Shield is really good, it's free, to make sure that your connection to the internet is encrypted.

All right, Robert, we appreciate your time today. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you so much.

Robert Siciliano, identity theft expert from Hotspot Shield.