Traveling with technology: Ten tips for handling your devices when you leave home
By Bahar Ferguson
Whether you have you have to work when you travel or you simply have a smartphone or other device that can access the Internet that you plan to bring with you on your trip, it is important to make sure to not turn your wonderful travel adventure into a tech disaster. Unfortunately, vacations are not immune from hackers, criminals, malware, etc. While you may be taking a break from some aspects of your regular life, you cannot take this break as it relates to your technology security and privacy.
To help maintain security when traveling, but to keep it simple so you can more quickly return to relaxation, here are 10 tips to help you stay safer while on the road:
1. Watch where you go and what you visit online. Avoid any websites that hold your sensitive information when you are on public Wi-Fi, particularly if the network is unsecured. This information includes, but is not limited to, online banking passwords, credit card information, etc. To determine if the network is safe, you can often contact your IT department or outsourced IT provider and have them remotely log in to your computer and determine what settings you may want to activate and whether the network is in fact secure.
It is also incredibly important to log out of any of the sites you log into — especially if using a public computer. It is not worth risking an auto-login or even providing a potential criminal with your username and the chance at guessing your password. It may take longer, but it will be much quicker than having to deal with the repercussions of a hack.
2. Lock your devices. If you are working or playing on your device, either in your room, at the pool or in any other public space, lock your device when it is not being used. This includes locking when you leave the device in a hotel room. Even though you lock your hotel room upon leaving, you do not want to risk any potentially curious or untrustworthy person becoming overly interested in anything you have on your device. Requiring a password anytime you step away from your machine — whether to grab a drink, get your lunch or leave your hotel room for the day — is an incredibly simple way to add a useful barrier to protect your sensitive and private information.
3. Pack useful cords. If you must work or plan to use your devices while traveling, double-check your cords and wires. Are you traveling somewhere with unique power plugs? Do you need any adapter cable to connect to traditional devices? Is internet so required, it may be worth packing an ethernet cable to ensure you do not have to rely on wireless at your location? Also, don’t forget the power cords. So often we have cords in our home and work offices and forget to have, or pack, a mobile power cord. In certain countries, this may create a very challenging problem. This is worth putting on your final travel pack checklist.
4. Disable auto-connect on your devices. As another safety step, disabling auto-connect will require you to join any network, but it will in fact ensure that you are intending to join the particular network.
5. Watch out for your Bluetooth connectivity. Disabling Bluetooth connectivity whenever unneeded — or as much as possible — will help lock down your phone or device from other users who can potentially hack in your device through its Bluetooth function. This will also help save thebattery. So, it’s not a bad option to take when you do not necessarily need active Bluetooth.
6. Be careful on public computers. Public computers may be infected with malware — either tracking your passwords or activity or simply tracking where you go and what you do online. It is also important to remember a point from tip No. 1: Log out of all websites, clear your username, etc. Don’t give potential criminals the leg up on guessing your information. It is also useful to watch to ensure nobody is watching too closely or is too interested in-person as to what you are doing. Be sure to grab anything you print off the printer or anything you copy off the copier as well.
7. Keep things updated. This is something you should do whether you are at home or traveling. Keep your devices updated, patched, etc. While you may be taking a vacation, troubles are not. As such, you must keep the same high standard on all devices — borrowed, community or your own as it relates to updates as you would back home.
8. Check local laws. If traveling abroad, a quick understanding of the cybersecurity laws in the country you will be traveling in can be quite useful. To determine where to start, you can check the State Department’s Consular Information Program: https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country.html.
9. Back up your data. Before you even leave your house, as part of what hopefully is already a strong backup routine, make sure your devices are fully backed up before you go on the road. It is not worth risking any of your data in case of loss or destruction of your device. Too often, people have devices fall in water while traveling or other such misfortunes. It is annoying enough to find (and spend time finding) a new device while out of town but try to make that the worst part and skip losing the data as well.
10. Turn off geotagging. Turn off your geotagging on social media sites to keep your location private. This is a great way to use technology to avoid letting criminals back home know your home is unattended.
Bahar Ferguson is president of Wasatch I.T., a Utah provider of outsourced IT services for small and medium-sized businesses.