Technology

You may be protected from cyber threats when you are at home or office. But when you are travelling, you won’t be protected from your home or office security network. You will always need to use the Hotel or public conference room Wi-Fi, and these public WIFI’s are not at all safe.

Your mobile devices are being exposed to threats especially when you are on the go.
It’s quite normal that we are forced to use the mobile device’s online connectivity for your work, but the more you rely on it, the higher is the chance of you getting exposed.

There are a few best practices that every traveller should adopt, which may prevent the damage to a greater extent.

How to Configure Your Devices for Travel

Lock the devices up

Always make sure your devices are locked and password-protected. Should you lose your device, or it’s stolen, your first line of defence is a strong password. Even simple storage devices such as your USB thumb drive should have a password.

If possible, always opt for two-factor authentications wherever possible.

In the case of travelling with your important data in your laptop, it is highly recommended to fully encrypt your device with any good encryption software. So even if your data falls in the wrong hands, it is way too for the hackers to gain access to your real data. As the data is in a different format, it is not possible to decipher without the decryption password.

Auto connection option to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection must be turned off. You must be able to decide which network you want to get connected to as most of the public Wi-Fi connections are unsafe.

It is also advisable to store your sensitive data on an encrypted cloud server rather than storing it on your local device especially when you are on the move.

Mobile Device Management

It is an ideal practice to make sure to use any leading mobile device management solution (MDM) if your business has many employees who are frequently travelling. Employers can restrict unauthorized access and can keep the device safe.

How to Deal with Public Wi-Fi – VPN

Make use of any good virtual private network (VPN). When you are using public Wi-Fi in conference halls or restaurants, you are more prone to cyber-attacks, which demands another level of security for your devices. A VPN acts like a proxy server, creating an encrypted connection between your device and your work’s network. Using this makes connecting to the hotel Wi-Fi so much safer.