Spied on in Singapore hotel room

A German general had his conference call in a S'pore hotel spied on. Could it happen to you too?

This incident came to light after a call discussing highly sensitive military issues was published on the Russian state-run RT channel.

This was reported on Today earlier this week.

The general was in Singapore during the Singapore Airshow in February and took the call through the hotel Wi-Fi.

🏨 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹

While the high-ranking official was not using a secured line as he should be, it is worth noting that the WebEx he used was a secure, certified version.

You know, with standard "bank grade" SSL and probably some other secret sauce on top. It proved inadequate.

The thing is, hotels are top targets by hackers seeking access to sensitive corporate, government data as senior executives or officials access their work.

🍎 𝗟𝗼𝘄-𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘀

And in the cloaks and dagger game of international espionage, nation-states go to extraordinary, mind-boggling lengths to spy.

For instance:

🔸 The NSA had intercepted shipments of new servers, implanting undetectable spy chips, re-sealing them, and shipping them on to over 30 customers.

🔸 Over a decade ago, fibre optic cables between Google and Yahoo data centres were wire-tapped by the US government, a non-trivial technical feat then.

Suffice it to say that any advice I can give here would probably be inadequate if you are a priority target of a well-resourced state actor.

Assuming you are not, the key is not to be a low-hanging fruit.

🔐 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳

There are various things you can do to avoid being a target. But the biggest change you can make is to obsessively use a trusted VPN service.

𝟭/ 𝗩𝗣𝗡 - VPN access can be gained through a software app, or via a hardware travel router that all your devices connect to.

𝟮/ 𝗪𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁 - Plugging your device with a cable eliminates some attack vectors, assuming the hotel network itself is not compromised.

I personally bring a travel router which - where possible - I plug into an Ethernet port. The idea is for the travel router to connect via VPN at all times, and my devices to connect through it, not the hotel Wi-Fi.

I wrote about one such travel router here: https://lnkd.in/gaZUGx62

🤔 What about you? How do you stay secure when travelling?

𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁: DALLE-3