The holidays are here and it is the perfect time to take advantage of the long weekend and travel to meet up with families and friends or just go on an out of the country trip to relax. Since we live in a gadget filled world, almost everyone who travels brings with them their multitude of devices like their smart phones, net books, laptops, and more.
Aside from the fact that these devices lets you stay connected anywhere you are, these gadgets are actually a good travel companion as devices now are so versatile that you can do a lot with it like watch videos, surf the net, send emails, and many more.
These gadgets are not cheap and therefore, it is a given fact that extra care should be taken when traveling with your gadgets. Apart form this reason, our gadgets contain a lot of personal information that will put the owner at risk from crimes like identity theft when these data has been comprised. The holiday season is a very busy season that people are always on the go and the crooks might take this opportunity to do their crimes to their unsuspecting victims.
Here are a few tips on how to travel securely with your gadgets this holiday season:
- Password protect your devices. In case you lost your devices like your laptop, phones, etc, the thief or the founder of your gadgets will still not gain access to all data and information stored on the lost device because they will be required to enter the password first to gain access to the files on the hard disk of the laptop, the contact list in your phone and many other important personal information. When choosing a password, avoid using common words like your birth date, nickname, email address, and the like which can be easily guessed by the criminals.
- Avoid unencrypted public wireless network. When scanning for WiFi networks, avoid those connections that does not required passwords as the cyber criminals can easily sniff it. A more secure way of connecting to the Internet is by creating your own network by tethering between your mobile phone and laptop or tablet.
- Browse Securely. If you need to enter important information over the net like your credit card details, passport numbers, etc, check to make sure that the site is using HTTPS URLs as this means that all data transferred to and from this site are all encrypted which offer better protection.
- Turn Off BlueTooth. Bluetooth is another form of connection that hackers and cyber thieves can use to sniff information from your device so turn it on only when there is a need for it.
- Install Security Applications on your device. There are a lot of available applications that you can install to protect your devices like the iPhone-compatible application, MobileMe. This application will let you track your phone if it get lost or stolen.
The power of the technology has allowed us to stay online and do a lot of activities on the go. This can be a great advantage but it is still important to note that cyber criminals are just waiting for the perfect opportunity to do their crime and so we should always be cautious every time we use our gadgets. The tips mentioned above are all easy and practical tips that can be easily followed to help protect your devices and your personal information.
Tags: Securing Devices, Travelling, Travelling Securely
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on December 26, 2011 at 10:11 am
Password protection is a simple step, but many people/ gadgets don’t have it. Its also better to encrypt important files and documents and protect them also with a different password as information maybe more valuable than physical cost of the device.
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on December 26, 2011 at 10:04 pm
This is very helpful because I travel a lot…Thanks!!
Felly recently posted…Great Affiliate Softewares Reviews
on December 27, 2011 at 3:49 am
@Felly, you are right, they are totally helpful tips to secure my gadgets when I’m travelling.
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on December 29, 2011 at 2:39 am
Those are really helpful tips coming from you Abie. My kids won’t go to vacation without their gadgets and these are good tips to give them. I don’t have password on my cellphone because I tend to forget the password sometimes. Silly me.
Thanks for sharing this helpful article. 
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on December 29, 2011 at 5:15 pm
I admit wherever I go I should see to it that I bring with me my gadget like cellphone to txt my friends and I’m not comfortable without them..thanks for the advice and great tips keep posting interesting blog…
on January 19, 2012 at 7:24 am
I am a geek and frequently travel with my laptop and Android, and generally make use of public networks. After reading the stuff, I have come to realize it might hurt without security.
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on May 11, 2012 at 11:06 am
Just don’t take it off of your person at any point. Stuff gets stolen when you leave it lying around, remove the opportunity and you remove most of the risk. Simple.