Steve Smith talks about the dangers of using the default username and password of devices, or not using a password for accounts.
Episode #8-08 released on October 15, 2017
Technology has brought about bad habits that many people continue to maintain even despite all the dangers that come with it. What am I referring to? Default usernames, passwords, and administrator accounts in Windows, and other operating systems, without password protecting their access.
Today, learn what can happen if you don't use strong passwords, or replace default passwords on your devices.
For small portable devices using a weak password or no password at all might seem like an easy way of accessing your devices. It is a bad idea to leave devices like mobile phones, tablets, and other portable devices unprotected. Considering how much personal information goes into a portable device. It is safe to say, that point of entry should be locked down.
Your Computer, and laptop, also, needs a strong password, but there are many reasons why you should do this. One, if your computer is not protected by a password some viruses may be able to easily infect your computer, and can cause all hosts of issues. Two, anyone who would have physical access to your computer could, also, access your computer, your personal files, and impersonate you, or worse.
If your computer is how you access network devices, and it is not protected you may, also, be giving attackers, locally or remotely, the ability to change settings in your network devices, including the router.
Which brings us to routers, network devices, internet of things devices, even portable gadgets. Default usernames and passwords are preprogrammed into a lot of malware. If they can identify your device, they will be able to compromise it, unless you changed the password, and hopefully the username, too. Leaving a router, or other device vulnerable can lead to all sorts of issues, including but not limited to listening to your traffic, viewing camera feeds, or compromising them to do other nefarious acts. And, whilst you can use a VPN to connect to the internet through your router, or any other router, a smart piece of malware or attacker could, also, block traffic going to and coming from a VPN service.
When a hacker is physically close enough to connect to wireless routers that are not encrypted and or secured, they can be vulnerable to two different attack vectors. They can be overtaken by hackers close enough to connect to them, having plenty of settings changed, or even locking out everyone. Or, they could listen in onto network traffic. For unencrypted traffic, they could see all the content. For any encrypted content, they could still see where the content is coming from. This may give them an idea of who you are communicating with.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net