Cybersecurity on a train

After 20 hours on various trains last week, I need to tell you what you might be doing wrong during a business trip.

I traveled by train from Berlin to Munich, then from Munich to Zürich, and finally from Zürich back to Berlin via Frankfurt. These are popular connections between major business cities in Germany and Switzerland. A seat next to me was never empty and unfortunately, person after person displayed a concerning carelessness with cybersecurity.

Dear Passenger next to me,

You're asking for some trouble when:

You use short passwords to access your machine

123456789. Come on. QWERTY. These are not passwords. I know that you need to provide this password many times a day but why? Make it longer, more random, mix letters with special characters and numbers.

You access a public WiFi

Stop. Use your phone to connect to the internet. It’s not that expensive, even in Germany. __DBofficialWiFi is not the official WiFi from Deutsche Bahn.

You leave your laptop unlocked when you go to the toilet

Look, I can take a look at your stuff so no one steals it but don’t leave your Outlook and confidential company documents in front of my eyes. Of course, I didn’t do anything naughty when you were gone. Or did I?*

You don’t use a privacy screen

Yes, I could read emails about your chemical company and architecture studio. I know the name of your boss. I know your name, email address and name of your current annoying client.  There was only one person who used privacy screen and I couldn't read anything. What a relief, I could focus on an episode of Jewish Matchmaking, instead of cybersecurity.

Sincerely,

Wiktoria

* I didn't. Next time I will.