Just in case you aren’t aware of the two more recent significant security issues, here a brief review of them and some website articles to move you in the expert category.

Windows 10 Ransonware –

Timed perfectly with the official Microsoft release of  their “Version 10” operating system release is an email scam that announces very officially and very Microsoft like a free download of the OS with the attached zip file.  That file will encrypt all of the files on your PC and ask for ransom.  To make matters worst and easier to believe, Microsoft even publicly announced they would be sending email notifications about the new release so folks were waiting for announcements.

The official response from Microsoft is that the windows 10 upgrade can only be done through the update center and it won’t come as an email with a zip file!  So watch out for those free Windows 10 upgrades!

Read the full article posted by Cisco about this issue and warn any members of your staff and family of this perfectly timed threat!

• Full Article about Windows 10 ransomware at Cisco blog

Free airport public wi-fi creates major security issues

When you have extra time at the airport, you are very likely to search and hopefully find a free wi-fi site.    It was proven lately that some of those “FREE” sites could actually be false wi-fi spots that are capturing all Internet traffic and able to compromise keyboard actions and your Internet connection transactions.

What makes this so hard to detect is that you are connecting to what appears to be a legitimate free wi-fi site and it actually works! Since you are connecting to the hackers router directly and then from that router to the airports real wifi service,  the hackers can easily capture all of the Internet traffic and take it home and get the information for use at some point in the future.

This middle router option allows one to simulate a regular wifi router software that can be clever to extract and log your Internet sessions.  It won’t be long before those “free wifi” hot spots in public places are going to looked upon as suspicious  and you will be continually asking yourself.. Am I getting compromised now?

Click here for the full article from http://www.breitbart.com/

To better explain how this “middle” router wifi connection is so difficult to detect and yet so compromising, please check out the article from Kaspersky, the experts in Internet Security about public wi-fi risks.

To make matters worst, some devices like iPads and other devices can be configured to automatically connect you to the strongest unsecured SSID wireless signal.

Take the wi-fi Challenge:

Can you detect which of the SSIDs listed below IS NOT a person sitting at Gate 23 with a simple fake router and is capturing all data from your connection..

• #SFO FREE WIFI
• #SFO GUEST WIFI
• SFO FREE INTERNET
• SFO Public Internet-1
• SFO Terminal 3 Public WiFi
• GUEST – FREE

Actually you can’t by looking at the name!  At the San Francisco International Airport, there is an official free wireless option I found on this website call flysfo.com.

The official wifi address listed on that website is the first one #SFO FREE WIFI

Were you able to determine which one is legitimate?

One option to help you prevent connecting to a hacker middle router wifi connections is to ask for information for the official public wifi SSID rather than just searching the list of network options and selecting one that is unsecured and looks “free”.

Conclusions:

As the world becomes more dependent on the  globally connected Internet for our lives, it also opens up options for more vulnerable exploitation from some bad players who will force us to believe the world is an untrustworthy place. We have to be increasingly careful with each Internet interaction and email we receive.  In exchange for this new global connectivity and  the benefits from a Internet connected world  we all now must exercise a  higher level of vigilance and continually validate anything or anyone that comes through the Internet.

Be careful out there!