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Wendy Battles: Welcome to the Bee Cyber Fit Podcast, where we're simplifying cybersecurity for everyone, where we cut through confusing cyberspeak and make cybersecurity simple and easy to digest. I'm one of your hosts, Wendy Battles.
James Tucciarone: I'm James Tucciarone. Together, we're part of Yale University's information security, policy, and awareness team. Our department works behind the scenes to support Yale's mission of teaching, learning, and scholarly research.
Wendy Battles: Ready to get cyber fit with us?
Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Bee Cyber Fit podcast. We're excited you're here and hope you are ready to get cyber fit with us. If you're a new listener, welcome aboard. This is the place to come for information and some serious inspiration to stay safe online and outsmart cybercriminals. This podcast is one of the many tools in our toolkit that we use at Yale University to help our faculty staff and students build their cyber muscles. Whether you're a part of our Yale community or our global community, we love that you're listening. You know what else is exciting? It's officially the start of summer, my favorite season. I'm sure some of you already have travel plans. You may even have multiple trips planned as you kick back and relax and go on adventures. That's why we're focusing this episode on traveling securely.
James Tucciarone: Wendy, I recently read a report about just that. Nearly a third of all adults have either fallen victim to a scam or know somebody that has. And in many cases, the victims lost their money before their trip even began. And like we already know; these scams take many different forms. So, a victim might be trying to save money while they're making a trip. They might be tricked into making payments through a fraudulent platform. In many cases, they have their personal information stolen, their payment details robbed, or their entire identities cloned based on the information that was harvested from them. So now, after saying all that, "Wendy, I wonder, do you have any trips planned for the summer?"
Wendy Battles: [chuckles] Well, I mean, after that, James maybe I shouldn't, but I will say that I don't have any big trips planned yet, keyword yet. But with my love of outdoor jazz festivals, I'm contemplating a few different potential locations. And I'm thinking of it as a mix of great music, new sites, and some really good food. And honestly, whether you're traveling domestically, internationally, or planning some day trips, we've got five travel tips to keep your data secure as you go on summer adventures. Plus, as usual, we've got some simple calls to action to help you get ready. But first, let's get a preview of our buzzword of the day.
James Tucciarone: Have you ever engaged with artificial intelligence? Even if you think you haven't, chances are you probably have without even realizing it. Besides being used to help revolutionize industry, artificial intelligence is present in our daily lives, too. Stay tuned to find out more about it and the key things we should know to stay cybersafe.
Wendy Battles: We're excited to share some proactive tips to keep our Yale community and beyond safe this summer. Some of them you're probably already familiar with, but they bear repeating. Or you may be hearing some of these suggestions for the first time. Either way, they're a great reminder about what to do and what not to do.
James Tucciarone: Well, Wendy, our first tip is actually about what not to do and it's around social media. I don't tend to post too much on social media, but Wendy, do you typically post to social media when you're on a trip?
Wendy Battles: Well, that's a great question. It goes back and forth, James. Sometimes I'm hyper-aware, especially if I'm out of the country and I don't necessarily like to post in the moment because I'm mindful of how people can figure out if you're away from different cues, you might leave. So, I am cognizant of that. But truth be told, I have spent some time also posting when on trips.
James Tucciarone: Wendy, you hit the nail right on the head when you said that you can sort of divulge some information by what you share on social media. And that's what this first tip is really about. We need to be cognizant that what we post on social media is available for the world to see and that also includes scammers and people that are trying to potentially rob us. And I saw a statistic, which was frighteningly high, about how many robbers actually use social media to figure out who they're going to rob. But I think the best thing that we can do here is think about posting the pictures when we return or maybe if we are going to post online, make sure that we're only sharing that information about where we are, that we're even planning a vacation with our trusted circle of friends.
Wendy Battles: It really does make a difference to be more mindful about what we're sharing, especially as we're going on vacation. And the thing I think about also, James, is that even as parents, let's imagine we are being completely careful about what we're posting. But imagine if your kids are unbeknownst to you, so it also can be a conversation you might have with your teenage or young adult kids about posting while away. Here's our next tip. Don't take any devices or data you don't need. How many times have you packed a lot of things for a trip and come back with things you never used? I hate to admit it, James, but I don't want to call myself the queen of overpacking, but I have been known to bring some stuff that it ends up I didn't need. It was that just-in-case kind of thing. But in this case, it's really better when it comes to devices to leave them behind if we don't need them. Really pack only what you think you're going to need and for what you do need for those devices that you absolutely are saying, I cannot live without them, one of the most important things is to keep an eye on them, make sure they're with you at all times within your sight.
James Tucciarone: Well, I'm certainly not the person that should be giving anybody advice on disconnecting when you actually are away from work, it is what we should be doing. So, we do want to leave our devices at home if we're at all able to do so. And if we're traveling for work, then we just want to make sure that we're traveling with safety in mind. And for our third tip, we want to encourage the use of a VPN or a virtual private network for added protection. So, some of the things we want to do are avoid connecting to public networks, because when we're in public on a network, there's literally anybody that could be on that network with us and we have to be extra careful. And we really should never connect to an unknown network. So, if we are in public or if we are somewhere where we're trying to connect, we want to make sure that network is legitimate. So hopefully, we can confirm that it is being hosted by either the establishment that we're in or the hotel that we're in, or whatever location we're in that would potentially be hosting that network. And another thing we should do is beware of unsolicited Bluetooth connection requests. In fact, we should just turn our Bluetooth and our Wi-Fi off if we're not using it just to be safe.
Wendy Battles: Those are all great tips, James, and honestly, I wouldn't have thought to turn off the Bluetooth connection. It wouldn't have dawned on me. Now, I'm going to be honest, I use my AirPods a lot, so I would need Bluetooth for that. But now, maybe I leave them behind because you can easily lose them anyway. So maybe I just bring the old-school ones that I can plug in to my phone and I don't have to worry about that. So, these are just all helpful things to be thinking about as we're getting ready to go off and hopefully have some fun adventures this summer. Our fourth tip is about being aware of your surroundings. We alluded to that earlier, but always keeping items secured when not in use, using the hotel safe if one exists, to secure your items. And certainly, when traveling abroad, especially in unfamiliar areas, pay attention to people distracting you. That's a very typical tactic.
They talk about it a lot when you're traveling in Europe and I'm sure other places, but thieves and criminals will try to distract you or tell you certain things so that you don't notice, to steal your wallet or your phone, etc. So, we want to be really careful about that. And I will mention this very brief story, James. When I was in Spain several years ago, I was in a supermarket in Barcelona. Believe it or not, I was looking for detergent to do laundry and I was having quite a lengthy conversation with my husband about it, comparing different detergents, and don't you know, someone came by, I was holding my phone, and tried to grab it out of my hand, and luckily, I was holding onto it really tight and it didn't happen. But it is so easy to be distracted, especially when we're in unfamiliar surroundings. So, we have to be especially vigilant when we're not in the familiar places we know where we know how things work. We really need to be aware of our surroundings and do everything we can to be focused, undistracted, and protect all of our personal belongings.
James Tucciarone: It's so true, Wendy. And I think just being aware of our surroundings applies at such a general level because when you think about it, somebody can just look right over your shoulder and watch the password that you're typing in or the credit card number that you're putting in, or any number of different things. So, it's always a good measure to take. And our last tip is actually backing up our data, which I don't know about you, but is definitely something that I don't normally think about until it's too late. Really, it's so important because a number of different things can happen to our devices. Our device could be stolen. The data that's on it might be lost with that data then as well. We can actually lose our devices. I got a really good laugh from a story that I heard from a member of our own information security team, where they said that somebody was actually on a cruise in the middle of the ocean, and they dropped their phone over the side of the boat. And the last stream that came from the phone was a mermaid showing that they found it as it fell to the ocean floor. So really, anything could happen. And I will also mention for those that maybe missed it, but our last episode was actually about lost and stolen devices, and reporting them when that happens.
Wendy Battles: It was and there is great information in that episode. We're linking to it in the show notes for easy access. We hope you will consider these five tips and think about which ones you could implement or maybe all of them this summer as you are traveling.
James Tucciarone: Here's the buzz on artificial intelligence often called AI. Let's start with the basics. What exactly is artificial intelligence? AI refers to computer systems that learn, reason, and react just like we do as humans. And because these systems can learn, they're able to perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence. So how does AI actually work? At the core of artificial intelligence are algorithms, which are essentially sets of instructions that guide machines to make decisions. Algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, finding patterns and making predictions based on that information, and because artificial intelligence can learn and improve over time that ability to find patterns and make predictions gets exponentially better with experience. AI holds tremendous potential for solving complex problems, from predicting diseases to improving transportation efficiency. We also find it in our daily lives, from voice assistance to streaming recommendations or even a simple Internet search.
Artificial intelligence continues to advance at an incredible pace, which brings us to the security and ethical responsibilities associated with it. AI needs to be both designed and used responsibly. Issues like data security, privacy protection, and the possibility of biased results just scratch the surface of considerations. But let's keep things simple and focus on a few things we should consider to help stay cybersafe. Be proactive and manage your privacy settings for AI-powered devices and applications. Be selective by researching the security assessments, reviews, and ratings of AI-powered applications and services before opting for use.
Finally, be informed. Keep up with best practices and updates about cybersecurity threats related to artificial intelligence. And one way you can do that is to keep listening to Bee Cyber Fit podcast, where we simplify cybersecurity and help you to be aware, to be prepared, and to be cyber fit.
Wendy Battles: We have three simple calls to action to get you, hopefully changing your behavior when it comes to secure travel. Number one, we invite you to visit our updated Travel Securely page on the cybersecurity website. We have linked to it in the show notes. It has further information and tips to make sure you are traveling as securely as possible. Number two, we encourage you to listen to the episodes that we have mentioned today on simple strategies that you can put in place so that if your device is unfortunately lost or stolen, there are some safeguards so that you do not lose your data. And finally, we're coming to the end of Season 2 in a few episodes, and we would love to hear from you. Do you have questions that you want to know about cybersecurity? Do you have comments you want to share with us? Do you have ideas for other episodes in Season 3? We are linking to a survey that is in the show notes, and we'd love for you to give us your input. We want to hear from you.
James Tucciarone: Wendy, that's all the time that we have for today. So, until next time, I'm here with Wendy Battles as always and I'm James Tucciarone. We'd like to thank everyone who helps make this podcast possible. We'd like to thank Yale University, where this podcast is produced and recorded.
Wendy Battles: Thanks, everyone. We appreciate you listening. And remember, it only takes simple steps to Bee Cyber Fit.
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