"Since the room was completely cleared out, I thought I went into the wrong room," airline pilot <redacted> told KNVX-TV after his iPad, laptop, passport, suitcase and pilot's uniform were taken from his room at a Tempe hotel.

Hotel-Room Electronic-Lock Hack Tied to More Thefts | Travel Security | TechNewsDaily.com

 

They even took his uniform and flight bag ?! That's absurd.

 

Their MO is to grab EVERYTHING, throw it into your luggage, and then walk out trying to look like just another guest. They don't want to run down the hall with an armload of stuff.

Assume that this WILL happen to you eventually (unless you only do locals or CDOs). Think about what you're willing to lose and what you aren't. My wallet, phone, and passport are never left unattended where they can be found. My laptop has all the important files in one directory tree, which is encrypted to NSA security levels.

 

In the last 5 years I have repeatedly bumped up my personal security on all levels. The world is half full of crooks unfortunately. Not that I have anything incredibly valuable to protect, but the above incident tells you what thee trashy humans do- they grab everything they can. I got hit at a YMCA a few months ago and that's exactly what happened- this jackass grabbed everything in my locker including the trash. He must have put it all in a gym bag and shifted it to another locker, because the security cameras did not see anything of mine going out. I never thought a thief would bother with a worn jacket, worn jeans, dirty socks, worn shower shoes, t- shirt, soap and stuff like that, but when I got back to my locker it was completely cleaned out along with my wallet which took months to fully replace. All that for $25 cash. Even the plastic grocery bag I use to keep my shower shoes in was taken. And it was a theft, staff had not been in there.

Laptops are vulnerable on multiple levels, both from software attacks and physical theft and damage. My solution is to have a fairly cheap laptop and keep almost nothing on it that's really important. Some special software maybe, nothing personal. Every day when I am done, everything goes to a USB key drive where it lives. The key drive is not encrypted but it is password protected with a lock-out feature. I tried encryption (TrueCrypt) and found it was too much trouble. Bit of a tradeoff for convenience there. Since it can also be stolen or destroyed, it gets backed up to a second one every 5 weeks as a manual effort. That way I would only be back a few weeks if the primary USB drive is stolen. It is also possible to use online backup services for truly important documents, which I do, but for the small stuff a USB key is the way to go.

As far as malware, not that big a problem with antivirus but I still have had garbage get into the registry which requires a tedious removal effort. I also have had total operating systems crash. The latter necessitates reloading the OS from scratch, a huge pain and is the main reason I no longer keep anything personal on a personal computer. There is also the risk of dropping the laptop and destroying it, which is another reason not to keep anything very serious on there, clearing it out takes maybe 3 minutes a day.

 

Have you tried CCleaner? aka crap cleaner. Free.

CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download

I use their defraggler and speccy programs too.

 

don't know if it helps (but it makes me feel better) but I have TV on, A/C on, and Do Not Disturb sign on door at all times when I leave the hotel room. I also make it a point to say hello and look them in the face (but with a pleasant smile) all cleaning people and hotel staff.

I also try to get end-of-hallway rooms. I wonder if anyone has studied the above crimes and checked how close the targeted rooms were to the elevator (quick escape).

 

The exploit is present in key card door locks made by Onity. Have a look at these videos to see what the locks look like.



In this video, the circuit and power supply have been placed in the tube of a dry erase marker.


The manufacturer is aware of the hack and has sent refit kits to all owners that want them.

The fix is a screw and blacking cap assembly that prevents access to the port seen in the video. If you stay in a hotel that has the affected locks, and has not installed the security retrofit (as evidenced by the hole in the bottom of the lock) you may want to consider walking to a more secure property. According to the lock manufacturer, all owners have been notified but apparently some hotel owners don't want to spend the money to install the security fix. If you see this style lock, and it has a hole in the bottom, and there's a shifty guy walking the halls with a dry marker, you may want to consider other accommodations.

 

Yeah I have that one, SpyBot, and AVG Free as well as the Microsoft stuff and they cannot find or catch everything, not even close. Some of the more aggressive malware trojans can hide in the registry and morph around. When that happens, you have to isolate the computer from the internet and dig it out file by file, which takes hours. If you are lucky it will not remain dormant for long. The only defense against aggressive malware is isolation, because they hitch rides on internet downloads mostly. The last one I got was hidden in a free FLAC reader that I downloaded. If you download something, make sure it is from a quality source. Hackers know people go for free software before they will pay and they exploit that fact. But malware can also get in through some pretty strange sources, anything you hook to your computer anywhere/anytime is a security risk. The Chinese got caught sending malware in through Walmart photo albums a couple of years ago.

 

Restore point is your friend.

 

If one is given a room that doesn't have the fix, I wonder if a small screwdriver could be used to physically damage the female port such that no connection could be made by a hacker? Might suck for the hotel, but then they should have installed the fix in the first place.