Protecting Your Work and the Connections That Matter — Part 1
“Could we make Wi-Fi available to customers, too?”
Imagine that this is how the idea of offering Wi-Fi at a small business begins.
You put a note with the password near the register, and customers can connect their phones to the internet. They can look things up while they wait or message friends and family. It is a small convenience, but one they may appreciate.
It is an ordinary improvement, made with the simple intention of making things more convenient for customers.
But there is one question worth asking:
Does that Wi-Fi connect only your customers’ phones to the internet?
What lies beyond convenient customer Wi-Fi?
Picture a small shop.
There is Wi-Fi for customers. The same shop also has devices connected to a network for business use: a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, a computer used for office work, and perhaps a device that stores business files.
We may not think very much about how all these devices are connected.
Depending on how the Wi-Fi is configured, however, the network customers use and the network used by the business may not be properly separated.
In that situation, Wi-Fi that was intended to give customers internet access could also become a route to devices used inside the business.
Customer's smartphone
|
v
[ In-store Wi-Fi ]
|
+----+----------------+
| |
v v
Internet Business network
inside the shop
|
+-----+-----+
| | |
v v v
POS PC Stored data
This is a simplified example of what can happen when a guest Wi-Fi network is not properly separated from a business network. Providing Wi-Fi does not automatically create this kind of connection. The equipment and its configuration can be set up to keep customer and business networks separate.
Of course, the person who configured the network may not have had any bad intentions. They may simply have wanted to make things more convenient for customers. They may not have known, when the Wi-Fi was installed, that this kind of connection needed to be considered.
The problem is not the presence of Wi-Fi itself.
The problem is continuing to use it without knowing how far it reaches or who may be able to access what lies beyond it.
An invisible entrance in an unexpected place
Networks that we use every day can become unexpected points of entry. This has happened in the real world.
In 2014, Kaspersky Lab reported on a cyber-espionage operation known as “DarkHotel.”
In this campaign, attackers abused hotel network infrastructure in Asia and targeted selected guests. When guests tried to access the internet through hotel Wi-Fi, they were shown programs disguised as updates for software they regularly used. The attackers tried to persuade them to install those programs, which were actually malicious.
From the guests’ point of view, they were simply staying at a hotel and using its Wi-Fi as usual. But beyond that connection, an attacker’s trap was waiting.
This does not mean that small shops are targeted in the same way or on the same scale. The attackers’ objectives and the people they targeted were different.
There is, however, one important point in common:
The network beyond what users could see had unexpectedly become part of the attack.
Wi-Fi is not the problem
You may be wondering whether offering Wi-Fi to customers is dangerous.
That is not the point.
Wi-Fi is a useful tool. It supports the work of shops and offices and helps them communicate with customers and business partners. What matters is not giving up that convenience, but understanding what the technology is connected to.
Start by asking yourself:
- Is the Wi-Fi for customers separate from the network used for business?
- Which network are the register, payment terminal, and work computers connected to?
- Do you know who manages these settings?
You do not need to know all the answers right away. If you are unsure, ask the company that installed the Wi-Fi or the person who manages it for you: “Is the customer Wi-Fi kept separate from the devices we use for work?” Even asking that one question is a useful first step.
What is your work connected to?
We began with Wi-Fi.
But Wi-Fi is only one part of the connections that support a business. Email, reservations, payments, accounting, suppliers, deliveries, and cloud services all play a role. We may not think about them very often, but our work depends on many people and services.
Each one is useful and has become part of our everyday routine.
That is exactly why it is worth pausing from time to time and asking: “What is this connected to?”
Not so that we become afraid, but so that we can protect our work and the people connected to it.
In the next article, we will look more closely at how many people and services support the work you do.
Source: Kaspersky Lab, “The Darkhotel APT” (2014). The description of DarkHotel is based on the company’s research report. https://media.kasperskycontenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2018/03/08070903/darkhotel_kl_07.11.pdf
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