Internet security risk at Hyatt
 

I know of a Hyatt hotel which has high-speed internet access through a router which has been configured (or, most likely, left at its default) to give automatic admin access to anyone who accesses it ... from anywhere on the internet!

I hope that this isn't the usual way Hyatts set up their high-speed internet connections, otherwise there are rather large security risks. I imagine that if someone were to remotely reconfigure it to use different IP addresses, the real administrators would just be rather confused. However, if someone were to reprogram the flash EPROM in the router, anything would be possible.

For those who don't understand the ramifications of what I just wrote: anyone, anywhere on the net, could reconfigure the piece of equipment which provides that Hyatt's high-speed net access. Someone with enough knowledge could totally reprogram it to not work at all or to do additional things, such as log all data transmitted, for example.

I suspect that if I emailed Hyatt about this, their reservations, etc, people would have absolutely no idea how to deal with it or even understand it. Do any of you have suggestions or know any Hyatt lurkers?

I always follow the practice of unplugging the ethernet cable when I am not acutally on line - I have no confidence in their router or firewall configs.

Maybe drop an email to online reservations. I'm betting they have some type of tech support who they could forward it to, and then hopefully the tech support people would be able to understand the ramifications and appropriately forward it to the internal tech support team.

Looks like we do have some Hyatt lurkers. I received email from someone who sounds like he is going to get the situation fixed.