Safe travels in a dangerously connected world.

A lot of people have started travelling now - and it looks like COVID has extended road trip season. I was travelling recently, too. For me, my cybersecurity habits don’t get looser when I leave the office. In fact, that’s the time to make sure you’ve got it all locked down.

I thought some of you might appreciate these tips, which work whether you’re travelling to wine country or just using the wi-fi at the cafe down the street.

I was travelling in Asia, roaming with my phone, and I suddenly got a notification from the local Telco to upgrade software on my iPhone. They do that so they can trace you better. Time to time, you can see carrier-specific upgrades on your phone. You should not do them while travelling. You have no idea what they are going to install.

If you are at the airport and during scanning of your electronic equipment, they take it for a secondary screening and you lose sight of your equipment… consider the equipment compromised. Don’t use it. If it’s a phone, they might clone your SIM card, for instance.

Everywhere I go, I’m using my own firewall. This also functions as my wi-fi hub. You can buy these things online. They are small and easy to pack. Through this, all my devices are protected and I can connect to a VPN, so all the traffic is hidden from the hotel or country where I am.

Another positive side effect of that is that I can share this among multiple devices I carry. I don’t need a separate signup for every device for the local network. If I sign up once with the firewall, all of my devices are signed up. This is very convenient for families with multiple devices, saving you time and money (Some hotels would charge for connecting extra devices to the wi-fi, otherwise).

And whatever you do, never ever use the hotel public computer to check your email. Safe travels!