• Home
  • keyboard_arrow_right Modhop Basics
  • keyboard_arrow_right Resources
  • keyboard_arrow_right Unhackable: Tips for Keeping Your Devices Secure When Travelling

Modhop Basics

Unhackable: Tips for Keeping Your Devices Secure When Travelling

Contributing Author November 11, 2020 5


Background
share close

Whether it’s a family road trip or a business hop – it’s always best to keep things stress-free. To that end, you’re best off taking necessary steps to ensure each trip is well-planned and organized while putting your safety and security first. 

a man sitting at a table looking at a phone

Typically, this can include the following:

  • Purchasing travel/item insurance beforehand
  • Keeping track of important documents/files that you take with you.
  • Keeping copies of any important documents (Digitally)
  • Storing valuable items (including your passport) in a safe or other secure space

However, if you are going to be using the internet during your trip – regardless of whether you are using it for business or mega-binge watching Netflix, Hulu or Prime – it is also important that you ensure you keep track of your cybersecurity. After all, you don’t want the contents of your laptop being vulnerable to hackers – particularly if you store important information on there.

With that in mind, here are some top tips for using the internet safely when traveling.

Download a VPN

A VPN– or Virtual Private Network – can help protect your privacy when using the internet when traveling, as it creates a private network for you to use, even though you are using a public connection. This increases the overall security of your device – as internet providers don’t gain access to your personal information, and can’t see the kind of content you are downloading or streaming. This also means your information is better protected from hackers. 

a woman sitting on a lounge chair using a laptop

You can install a VPN on a variety of devices, including your Amazon Firestick. Check out this online guide from TroyPoint to find out how!

Choose your Wi-Fi carefully 

At any given time, you may be within range of several different Wi-Fi signals that you can connect to – but you should carefully select which networks you chose. For example, if you are working in a coffee shop, make sure you are connected to their network and not a random one in the neighborhood, which could be used by hackers. In general, password protected wifi is best. 

Disable Auto-Connect services

You may have your PC or laptop setup to automatically connect to any available network. Usually, this means that you are never without a strong and stable connection, meaning nothing interferes while you work or play. However, if you are staying in a new place, it is best to disable this auto-connect function and make smarter decisions about the networks you connect to, to protect your privacy.

 Use Two-Step Verification for your accounts

Two-step verifications are essential for protecting you on the most common online services and are useful in improving your overall online security – not just when you are traveling. For example, you should use two-step verification to gain access to your work email if possible. This means in addition to providing your password, you may be asked to verify your identity by receiving a text message or phone call. This helps keep track of who can gain access to your files and accounts.

The Verge has a great guide to help you set-up 2-factor authentication for many common services.

Have a tip we missed? Let us know in the comments!

Tagged as: .

Rate it
Author

Contributing Author

General travel tips and advice on destinations, hotels and flights.

list Archive

Background
Previous post

Post comments

This post currently has no comments.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *