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Welcome to the Shared Security Podcast, the longest running cyber security and privacy
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show for actual humans.
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No jargon, no hype, just honest analysis from industry veterans who've seen everything
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and survived it.
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Each week we break down the stories that matter, expose the nonsense that doesn't, and give
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you the tools to stay safe in a world where everything is connected and nothing is guaranteed.
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This is Shared Security.
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This week on Shared Security we're talking about hotel wifi, and is it actually safe?
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Well, the answer isn't never use hotel wifi, but the moment your phone or laptop throws
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up a hotel login page is exactly when you should slow down and pay attention.
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So we're talking about the captive crunch malware campaign where attackers turn that
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ordinary wifi connection step into a chance to steal credentials or deliver malware.
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So we'll cover the right flags that should make you stop.
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We'll talk about a VPN and what that does and doesn't do, and the simple habits that
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keep a hotel connection from turning into an account takeover.
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And joining me for this conversation is the one and only Scott Wright.
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Oh there, hello from Canada.
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Hello from Canada.
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How's it going up in Canada?
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Oh, not too bad.
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We're under attack by Canada geese that have machine guns and weird looking hairdos, but
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yeah.
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Yeah, that's awful.
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I'm sorry you're going through that.
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We have Canada geese here too, and they are invasive, but you know, I mean you guys
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have invaded the United States at one point before.
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Not before, we'll do it again if we have to.
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You'll do it again if you've got to burn the White House down again.
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You've got to do it.
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I know.
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I know.
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Yeah.
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Besides all that, we're here to talk about wifi.
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You know, it's fascinating to me, we were just talking about this before the podcast
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is that the threats around wifi haven't really changed
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over the years.
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We're talking way back, right?
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We've been always having this conversation about wifi on the show, and if you look
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back on our previous episodes, you'll see we're kind of talking about the same thing.
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Even though there's new attacks and there's kind of new methods, but the end of the day,
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the same advice still applies that we're going to talk about on this podcast today.
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It's because it's not all technology that has the risks.
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That's right.
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Yeah.
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That's right.
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So just to kind of frame everything, so I was kind of inspired by a couple of weeks
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ago, Microsoft released some details about an attack that they've been seeing more focused
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on Entra ID, which is kind of the central authentication system for Microsoft products.
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And there is a dub this attack called captive crunch, not captain crunch, like the cereal.
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I mean, a little confusing there, but captive crunch.
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And this malware campaign is essentially pretty widespread according to Microsoft.
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So this has been affecting hotel chains, large conference centers, you know, things like that.
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And what they found was that, you know, these are mostly state sponsored threat actors that
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are doing these things.
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But what happens is you'll be just like you normally do connect to the hotel wifi
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and you get this thing called a captive portal, which is, you know, some type of
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login or authentication to, you know, so not everybody can access the wifi network, but
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hotel guests specifically.
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And these vary by hotel chain, by the systems that they're using.
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But what's happening is that users will get this pop up for, hey, Microsoft found malware
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on your machine, you need to click here, or they'll be a prompt for your user credentials,
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like for your Microsoft login credentials with something saying, hey, you know, this is Microsoft
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tech support.
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We found this thing on your computer, you need to follow these instructions and all these
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things kind of vary, but it's one of those things of if you're not aware during that
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login process of
something weird like, why is the hotel asking me to scan my computer
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or why am I getting this Microsoft login prompt?
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It definitely is out of the ordinary.
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And I think that's the one trigger for a user, right?
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Is you're not seeing a hotel login page.
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That should be your first warning sign that something else is going on here.
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Yeah, it's an interesting problem.
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And as I was saying to you earlier, I started looking at this about 10 years ago
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after the Honey Stick project where I was dropping USB drives.
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I started exploring the possibility of doing a project called the Honey Point project where
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we would set up some rogue, but not malicious access points with free Wi-Fi, capture some
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data and just sort of see what was exposed and do a little experiment and report on that.
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And it turned out that technologically it was actually kind of hard to, you know,
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actually see anything because even 10 years ago, most important data streams were being
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encrypted and a lot of people using VPNs even then.
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So you couldn't really see much.
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It doesn't mean that we couldn't have done something, but I decided not to go forward
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with that one just because there wasn't a lot of free data available.
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We could have though, as you suggested, done something a little more on the social
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engineering side because when you set up one of these access points, you can
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create, as you said, a captive portal that can collect any information you want.
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You could, you know, you could typically, hotels always ask for your room number in
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your name or something, but there are other free Wi-Fi portals where they just
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ask for an email address and, you know, it seems like a fair exchange.
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I'll give you my email address and you can be free Wi-Fi, right?
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But you may immediately get an email, you know, that is a phishing email and
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trying to social engineer you from that point of view, but you could also get,
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as you said, those pop-ups that could try to download malware right to your computer.
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So it's more of a social engineering risk, really, than the technology risks
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that we all sort of assumed it would be.
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Yeah, you're exactly right.
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And the other thing I wanted to bring up is that a lot of people think
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that if I'm using a VPN, that's going to protect me.
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And that isn't always the case, right?
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Because a VPN is used for really hiding the web traffic that you are sending
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across the ISP that the hotel is using.
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Or even if you're using a VPN at home, your, your internet access provider,
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right, is they're unable to see your queries and what your, what websites
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you're going to and things like that.
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Now VPNs is a bigger issue altogether because there's been issues
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with some VPN providers are able actually to see what you're doing.
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And there's been court subpoenas and all these things of how much is logged,
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right, with these VPN providers.
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But it's really not protecting you from a malware type of attack where,
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like in this case, with the captive crunch malware, like you're still
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going to get a pop-up, like you're still going to get, if someone has
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attacked the actual hotel network in that captive portal system,
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turning your VPN on before that isn't really going to help you at all.
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Cause that's just protecting the information that you're sending.
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And by the way, that is still all encrypted through the use of HTTPS,
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which I know we've talked about that in the past where before, way back
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in the day, because Scott and I are old, we remember where you could
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use a tool called SSL strip, which would basically force a captive
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portal or, you know, another system into plain text, essentially.
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So then you could intercept what people were doing on a hotel network
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very easily.
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And today that is much harder to do from an attacker perspective.
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Yeah.
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And you probably have seen, I've seen this many times, you go to a hotel
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and there'd be four or five Wi-Fi hotspots, right?
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And one of them will say, you know, Hilton guests or whatever.
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And then you'll see one
that's saying, Hilton free Wi-Fi.
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And what are you going to pick?
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Right.
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If you're cheap, you're going to pick the free one because it doesn't
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have any codes needed to get in.
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And that sounds like a pretty good, you know, scenario for attacking somebody.
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Yeah.
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So that's, that's a great point, Scott, is, you know, be aware
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of the hotel network you are connecting to because, yeah,
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somebody could easily put up a fake portal or a fake access
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point and redirect traffic through, through them.
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That is totally plausible.
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Now, the biggest thing I hear from a lot of people is like, Oh my gosh,
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should we even use hotel Wi-Fi?
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And like we always talk about this goes back to your threat model, right?
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Depending on who you are and what you do and what types of
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activities you're using the internet for, you may want to, you
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know, purchase one of those hotspot devices or what, like what I do
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when I travel, I use my phones built in personal hotspot.
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Not that I don't trust the Wi-Fi network, but I actually find that
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the speed and the quality of that connection over my mobile phone
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is actually better than a lot of these crappy Wi-Fi networks.
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I mean, it was a thing that a lot of people were scared to do
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just because of the cost of mobile data years ago, but now
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it's pretty much, you know, included in every plan.
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So the cost shouldn't really be an issue anymore.
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I do the same thing.
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And the only time I would use a free one is if, you know, the
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mobile data coverage is really weak.
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And, you know, you can get something stronger locally, but
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then I would use a VPN and I would also double check, you
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know, any important portals or you're going to enter
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information on because you can still see an, you know, a
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TLS encryption logon icon or whatever it is, right, that
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they show you when you're on a secured page, but that
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doesn't mean you're on the legitimate page.
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It only means that you've got SSL or TLS turned on.
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I mean, I think the biggest piece of advice too is if you just
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see anything strange, like, you know, popups or certificate
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warnings or these types of things on a hotel network, you
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should probably disconnect as soon as possible, right?
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Like, because that is not normal.
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You should not be seeing certificate errors.
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You should not be seeing popups saying, this is
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Microsoft support, install this thing, right?
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Or like your point, Scott, about if you're, if you put in an
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email address into a portal and then all of a sudden you're
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getting these weird email messages, this happens at
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airports too, right?
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If that system was compromised, you need to be aware of that.
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So again, I think the message is just being more aware
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of anything strange that happens during that login
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process and obviously you're not going to get, you
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know, Microsoft scan malware requests.
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As soon as you log into a hotel network, that is not normal.
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So yeah, really important information, I think, for
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being able to know.
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Just something to be aware of.
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I mean, I know we're coming towards the end of travel
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season, you know, the end of summer is here.
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I know we've got Labor Day this weekend or by the time
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you listen to this episode, it will be Labor Day when
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this episode is released in the US, but it's always
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good to have kind of these travel tips around how
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tell you how to use Wi-Fi more securely, hotel
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network or not.
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All right.
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So I think that's all we have time for today, but Scott,
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I wanted to give you a chance to plug the book again.
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The book.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Cool.
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Let me just see.
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How's that look there?
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Oh, there we go.
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Very nice.
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It's a little bit cropped, but yeah, there's my, my
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first version of the cover and title, the digital
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legacy tree, ensuring your loved ones can access the
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digital accounts they need after you die.
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The title may actually change a little bit based
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on feedback.
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I have quite a few people doing reviews now, but
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I'm really interested, especially in, you know,
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security experts or financial planners, estate planners
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who have, you know, a lot of experience in these
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areas.
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I'd really love to get more stories and feedback on
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that, but a couple of interesting, you know, quotes
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I just love to relay from early beta readers saying
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things like, this is a remarkable resource.
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I've recommended all my family members to get
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a copy of it for their use.
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Looking forward to seeing you get this published.
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Also, I keep getting, keep being impressed with your
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detail, which is very nice to hear.
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So yeah, so yeah, if you're interested, Tom, I'll put
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the link in the, in the show notes, but it's
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securityperspectives.com.
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You go there, you can find the link to the
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digital legacy tree, a book and tools.
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And yeah, congratulations on that.
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It's great.
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I love seeing it take off and you've been getting
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good feedback and that's great.
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So we'll continue to give that.
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Hope to publish this in the next month or two.
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Um, it's, it's going to be self published and you know,
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it's, I think it'll be pretty straightforward.
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In fact, I'm going to be probably offering free
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versions of the, the Kindle version for a while
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until I get some reviews.
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So stay tuned for how you can get that.
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All right, everyone.
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Well, thank you again for listening and
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subscribing and sharing the podcast with your
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friends and colleagues.
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It's much appreciated.
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We love getting feedback by the way.
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If you have feedback about this episode, you
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can drop a comment in our YouTube video for
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this, or you can send us an email at feedback
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at shared security.net.
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So until next time, stay safe, stay secure
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and stay private.
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Thank you for listening or watching.
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If you liked this episode, hit subscribe, share
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it with your friends and colleagues or jump
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into our community at shared security.net
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slash supporter to keep the conversation going.
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Thanks again, and we'll see you next week
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for another episode of shared security.