You are on vacation or spending the weekend at the beach. Like normal your using your laptop or smartphone. You may be computer savvy; so you don’t allow onlookers view you typing your secure passwords.
But its not those that you can see you need to worry about.
Its the person watching your network activity; logging every site you visit, logging you bank credentials, email, home address , contacts (friend lists), and anything else s/he can obtain. The ultimate eavesdropper.
This persons mission; to steal data from you, about you. This is the man(or woman) in the middle (MITM).
The man-in-the-middle will use many tools and security vulnerabilities which are exploited to allow them to see your data as clear as looking at it on your screen. More so they can see your passwords even when they are all dotted out from the naked eye.
The MITM can inject code into your session to redirect you to fake sites, they can even see what you are viewing in real time.
Attackers use non-secured log-ins to apps on your phone and web sites you visit to obtain data about you.
So how do I protect myself from this?
There are many solutions; the best methods are to always use applications (apps) on your phone that use secure connections to the services it connects to. This may be a shock to you; many do not, and this is part of the problem.
Always use sites that are secured with HTTPS from start to finish. Again, many do not, and this leaves you exposed.
If and when possible use a VPN (virtual private network) solution.
This is another form of protection as your communication is sent encrypted threw a network you trust to be more secure than the one you are presently on.
So best advice I can offer you is
- Be aware of the sites you visit
- Ensure the sites you use , are using SSL
- Be sure the apps you choose to use, are using SSL
- Get a VPN Solution
- And change your passwords often
- And don’t use the same password for everything