The World’s Riskiest Tourist Attractions for Mobile Devices

Times Square in New York City presents the most threat to tourists using a mobile device, according to a Skycure report.

Skycure studied the world’s most popular tourist attractions, identifying actual network threats occurring from mobile devices over the past year. Destinations in large cities such as New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Las Vegas topped the list. Three separate Disney Parks were in the top 15 riskiest tourist destinations, including Disneyland Paris, Disneyland in Anaheim, and Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is the world’s safest top tourist attraction for mobile users, partly due to the limited connectivity around the famous structure and mostly due to the ban on using mobile phones within the monument. These mobile phone limitations create a low value for attackers to create malicious hotspots near the attraction. Within the United States, the safest top tourist destination was Great Smoky Mountains national park in Tennessee, a wilderness abundant in beauty but not mobile connectivity, said the report.

“Unfortunately for mobile tourists, the most magical places on earth can sometimes be the most dangerous,” said Adi Sharabani, CEO of Skycure. “When you’re in a high-traffic area like these famous destinations, you’re a target for hackers. Unlike your computer, your phone is always on, even when you’re taking in the sights. Mobile tourists are a lucrative target for cyber criminals.”

The threats were identified with Skycure’s patent pending Active Honeypot technology and crowd wisdom which creates the world’s most complete picture of the Internet from a mobile perspective. Skycure conducts millions of security tests on a monthly basis and monitors tens of thousands of mobile devices. Travelers can check for top mobile threats in any destination by visiting https://maps.skycure.com.

The top 15 tourist attractions with the highest risk are:

1.Times Square, New York City, NY
2.Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France
3.Disneyland Paris, Marne-la-Vallee, France
4.Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
5.Ocean Park, Hong Kong
6.Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, NV
7.Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hollywood, CA
8.Union Station, Washington DC
9.Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA
10.Disneyland Park, Anaheim, CA
11.Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
12.St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
13.Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand
14.Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Orlando, FL
15.Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA

In a separate analysis, Skycure reviewed all worldwide Skycure Threat Intelligence data and found:

The average monthly rate threat encounters for all mobile devices was more than 25 percent. This likelihood increases to 40 percent over a period of four months.
On a monthly basis, Android phones are twice as likely to encounter a threat than iPhones. On average, 41 percent of Android devices will encounter network threats in a month, while 19 percent of iOS devices will encounter a threat in the same one month period.
Android devices connect to more threatening networks even though they connect to less networks overall than iPhones. Android devices connect to fewer unique WiFi access points than iOS devices. On average, mobile devices connect to 14 different WiFi access points on a monthly basis. iOS devices connect an average of 17 unique WiFi access points while Android devices connect to about 10 WiFi access points monthly according to the data.

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In today's rapidly evolving security landscape, organizations face an ever-growing array of disruptive events, security threats and risks. Traditional reactive approaches to security intelligence often leave businesses vulnerable and ill-prepared to anticipate and mitigate emerging threats that could impact the safety of their people, facilities or operations.