Keep your data safe while you travel!
Vagabondish has an excellent list of the top ten ways to secure your data while you travel. Some of them are fairly obvious, like being quiet when you’re talking on a cell phone because people overhear you even if they’re not trying to eavesdrop, and telling someone a password over your phone is just begging for trouble. Then again, sometimes the things that are obvious are the ones we miss most easily – how many times have you heard more than you ever wanted to know as someone chatted loudly into their cell?
Other tips caution against using public computers for sensitive business – say, checking your bank balance or logging into PayPal – due to keylogging software, and to be aware of how secure (or insecure) the wireless network you’re using may be before you do anything of importance.
One tip that was offered that I didn’t know about was that you should keep your card-key from your hotel room until you arrive at home and can shred it like any other papers with valuable information. Why? Because some people have reported that it contains information like credit card numbers that could fall into the wrong hands.
Check out the full list and make sure that you have the confidence that your important data is safe while you travel.
Image: Morguefile
1 Comment
I wonder if the room-card key information is true? Wouldn’t it make sense just to turn it in at the end of your stay instead? Of course, I always forget them in my room or purse.
This is good info- people need to use their brains more about their data, which is actually more my husband’s specialty. however, I had the experience of sitting near someone (a sales rep for the competition) in LaGuardia after an industry convention last year who spent about half an hour audibly gossiping about a meeting that I had actually been in and she had not. She didn’t recognize me and started “sharing opinions” with my company. At the end of the flight, I introduced myself as we were working on the same account, on the premise I recognized her from the account. She realized completely what she had done and is embarrassed to this day. I could have let it go, but it was just one of those things…