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Credit to Author: Brian Barrett| Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2018 17:44:43 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n A Russian sports <\/span>official earlier this year estimated<\/a> that as many as 2 million people would flock to the country during the World Cup<\/a>, the month-long celebration of soccer\u2014or football, fine\u2014that kicks off today in Moscow. If you\u2019re one of them, have fun! But also maybe leave your laptop at home.<\/p>\n Yes, traveling to and between Russia\u2019s 11 World Cup host cities should provide marvels aplenty. But it\u2019s important to remember that Russia, by and large, is a nightmare land of digital debauchery. If you\u2019re a journalist, activist, politician, celebrity, or other high-profile figure, you\u2019re at decent risk of being targeted by surveillance. And even if you\u2019re just a fervent Finland fan, indiscriminate cybercrooks run rampant.<\/p>\n That may sound like hyperbole, but it\u2019s also official guidance from the top counterintelligence official in the United States. \u201cAnyone traveling to Russia to attend the World Cup should be clear-eyed about the cyberrisks involved,\u201d William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in a statement this week. \u201cIf you\u2019re planning on taking a mobile phone, laptop, PDA, or other electronic device with you\u2014make no mistake\u2014any data on those devices (especially your personally identifiable information) may be accessed by the Russian government or cybercriminals.\u201d<\/p>\n A little perspective is healthy here. You won\u2019t get hacked the minute you set foot in Moscow, as an NBC report<\/a> prior to the Sochi Olympics in 2014 implied. But things do work, as they say, a little differently over there.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a baseline level of untargeted cyberattack type stuff that happens in Russia, Ukraine, nearby places,\u201d says Ryan Lackey, founder of ResetSecurity. \u201cThat ambient background level is fairly high, which also is cover for whenever there\u2019s a targeted attack. So you\u2019ve got an increased risk versus a lot of other locations.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately, some common sense steps should help you navigate the various dangers that might present themselves. And they start before you ever board the plane.<\/p>\n 'I would analogize it to walking down a dark alley in a big city.'<\/p>\n Jake Williams, Rendition Infosec<\/p>\n The first rule of traveling to any potentially hostile nation: If there\u2019s a device you don\u2019t absolutely need, you should leave it behind. \u201cTravelers should decide whether they can reduce the amount of digital information that they carry across the border,\u201d leads off the EFF\u2019s \u201cDigital Privacy at the US Border: Protecting the Data On Your Devices,\u201d a guide created in response to increased device searches there<\/a>. The advice applies to Russian borders, as well.<\/p>\n For most people, that means ditching your laptop. It\u2019s generally easier to live without one for a stretch of time than a smartphone. They're also more likely to house desirable information, especially if it\u2019s your work rig. And it's more tempting to use public Wi-Fi with your laptop, which gets to the second-most important piece of advice: Don\u2019t use public Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic Wi-Fi is almost always unencrypted. That means that any eavesdropper, any bystander, can listen in on your communications,\u201d says Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec. Attackers can also use those public connections to pull off a so-called man-in-the-middle attack, in which they redirect your browsing request to a malicious website of their choosing. \u201cFrom that point, via the browser, they can run malware on the machine,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n That can and does happen stateside, but again, Russia operates on a whole other level. \u201cThe networks that you connect to while you\u2019re there are going to be much more hostile than the networks you connect to in the US. In the US you can connect your laptop to a hotel network and have a pretty reasonable expectation that nothing bad is going to happen,\u201d Lackey says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of cases of networks that are either monitored, or serving traffic, or man-in-the-middling, or anything else over there.\u201d<\/p>\n 'The networks that you connect to while you\u2019re there are going to be much more hostile than the networks you connect to in the US.'<\/p>\n Ryan Lackey, ResetSecurity<\/p>\n As for your smartphone, you can pick up a disposable, prepaid burner<\/a> once you\u2019re situated in Russia if you think you might be specifically targeted. Otherwise, just make sure to keep your mobile device on your person at all times, stay off Wi-Fi, and use common sense when browsing<\/a>. Lackey also recommends logging out of any sensitive accounts before you land, and staying logged out until the return trip.<\/p>\n