Hotel room security: Service not included

By Ken Munro on Nov 27, 2007 3:35 PM
Filed under Crypto

From keycards to mini bars, modern technology has equipped hotel rooms with multiple vulnerabilities. One of our consultants had his personal laptop stolen from a locked hotel room recently. There was no evidence of a forced entry, suggesting an inside job.

The laptop's hard disk was encrypted, so the consultant wasn't bothered about the data, but, rather amusingly, the hard disk appeared on eBay a couple of days later. How did we know it was his? There can't be many hard disks with Coca Cola stains on them. This incident reminds me of some research into hotel security we did a while ago. Conventional key locks are indeed fairly secure, although lockpicking and "bumping" are always a problem. However, magnetic stripe keycards are now ubiquitous, and we believe there are vulnerabilities in these systems. Next time you ...
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