The fact that hotel Internet connections are now being used as a malware gateway may not be as surprising as the fact that it took so long until this loophole was actively exploited.
The FBI is warning Americans that hackers are attempting to install malware on computers via the sign-in process commonly used by hotels. The problem apparently does not affect the U.S., but hotels abroad. During the log-in, travelers have reported additional pop-up windows that suggest the update of a "widely used" software for which "updates are frequently available".
Common sense suggest to be always careful with such update and download requests, especially if they are communicated via a pop-up window. Needless to say, there is no update, but downloaded and installed malware instead.
Those who were tricked into the download of the "update", are asked to immediately contact their local FBI office, and "promptly report it" to the IC3's website.
Hotel related AP names are used I believe, so for when a person staying at a hotel is searching for the wifi, they may connect to the malicious connection instead, and by the person seeing that they need to login to the supposed hotel wifi via their browser, they think its legit.
Cool story, bro!
I've mostly given up on wifi at hotels. They frequently have too much space between hotspots, meaning half the time the signal is too weak from inside my room for a reliable connection.
Instead, I've started carrying a portable router/WAP when I travel, and just plug that into the wired Internet connection in the room. That guarantees I have a strong wifi signal within the room, and avoids any malicious fake hotspots. It also has the advantage of only having to sign into the hotel network once, then the entire family can connect to it (I just set the SSID and pw to be the same as my home network).
I was expecting you to move to Bel Air by the end of that post. Honestly.
The problem is most computer users are not savvy. Most are not as experience as the people that post here. So it seems the article is "preaching to the choir".