FBI: hotel hotspots used to spread malware

Hotel internet connections and hotspots are increasingly being used to infect travellers' systems with malware. According to a report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) – a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) – criminals are now using pop-up windows to target travellers when they try to establish an Internet connection in their hotel rooms.

The IC3 says that these pop-ups are presented as update notifications for "a widely-used software product"; specific details about what the software update claims to be are not provided. If users click accept and install the purported update, malicious software is installed their system instead. The FBI recommends that those who travel abroad "perform software updates on laptops immediately before travelling, and that they download software updates directly from the software vendor’s web site if updates are necessary while abroad".

The report goes on to ask any users who believe that they have been a target of this kind of attack to immediately contact their local FBI office and report it to the IC3.

See also:

• Hotel Wi-Fi uses JavaScript injection to modify web sites, a report from The H.
• Mobile VPN: staying secure on the go, a feature from The H.

(crve)