Still, I've started tethering my Chromebook to my BlackBerry during sessions. However, Engadget maintains full editorial control, and Verizon will have to pry it from our cold, dead hands.) (Disclaimer: Verizon has acquired AOL, Engadget's parent company. Later in the day, I wander into a talk about spoofing GSM towers, which amplifies my concern about the cell-tower spoofing I heard about the night before. I do know that tethering my BlackBerry Q10 with T-Mobile works fine. I've been unable to get a strong mobile connection with my Verizon MiFi since Friday night. Yeah, I'm adequately paranoid and I change my password. I also noticed during a presentation that a less-than-scrupulous attendee was peeping my keyboard whenever I typed my password. The words "shit design" are actually uttered. I also learn from an attendee whose job it is to build enclosures that keep items safe from wireless intrusion that my fancy RFID-blocking wallet isn't very good. So maybe I'm just the right amount of paranoid. I feel like I'm being overly paranoid - then I find out later that there are folks spoofing cell towers. I call her and ask, "Did you send me a message that just said 'Hi Robbie'?" She starts to giggle and says yes. I unplug my computer from the MiFi and shut it down. I log in to iCloud and check her phone's location. Has my iCloud account been hacked? Has her account been hacked? She's gonna be super pissed if her account gets hacked. My wife has never sent me a message like this and I start to panic. Then I get the following iMessage from my wife's account: I assure them all via Slack that I have not been hacked (they don't believe me) while I get ready to head to the convention for the day. When I wake up, I tether my MacBook to my MiFi and check in with Engadget home base. Even though I'm staying two miles from Bally's, where Def Con is being held, I know attendees are staying in the same hotel so no free hotel WiFi for me. The iPhone goes in a Faraday sleeve - the MacBook I just shove in my suitcase under my clothes. I know your game!Īfter landing in Vegas, I immediately go to my room and shut down my iPhone and MacBook Air. Especially them, with their awesome stories socially engineering me to tell them what I do. Even the really nice old couple that talked to me on the plane. While Vegas is definitely a hostile environment, it's good to remember that hackers will also be flying to Def Con and hanging out in the airport. Later on, not so much.īefore I leave the house to catch my flight, I turn off WiFi on all my devices. I'm feeling pretty good about my wallet choice. So I stop by a travel store and pick up an RFID-blocking wallet. Still, not having my ID or credit cards with me while walking around Vegas seems like a bad idea. I've already been warned to bring cash to Vegas and that I should treat all the ATMs near Def Con as compromised. But I still need to buy stuff while on the show floor. Wickr is nice enough to give me two Faraday sleeves to keep my cards and iPhone in while back in my room. In addition to securing my devices, I also need to protect my credit cards and work gear while it's back in the room. The Q10 also gets a burner BlackBerry account. When both devices are ready, I create burner Gmail and Twitter accounts. But it's late Sunday night and I uncheck the box that syncs data between the phone and the computer and go for it. This ruins my plan to keep these burner devices from connecting to my work machines and adding an extra layer of security to my personal and work accounts. I finally figure out that I need to download a BlackBerry app onto my Mac and update the phone via USB. It's important to keep all your devices up-to-date because vulnerability patches reside in those fancy updates you get that also drop new features. Then I find out I can't do an OTA update of the Blackberry. The Chromebook's Powerwash feature finishes pretty quickly and I'm fairly positive it's not overwriting my data with zeros. The BlackBerry's Security Wipe takes forever so I assume it's doing a pretty good job at deleting all my personal information and main BlackBerry account. By subscribing, you are agreeing to Engadget's Terms and Privacy Policy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |