R. Rose Padgett,
Due to the upcoming travel and security meeting, I have compiled 5
key points from the Read Ahead package.
Do not leave laptops or phones open, on, and unattended. This is
more of a commonsense issue, but incidents still happen. Please
keep your devices always secured by yourself, if you do not have
physical control, you are at a much greater risk of having the device
stolen, or someone nearby tampering with the device if you leave it
sitting. It does not take long for an attacker to tamper a device and
compromise it.
Do not charge in public. Some attacks can happen when a charging
station is compromised. There is no way to tell if it is compromised,
and if you are attacked you might not have any indications. New
ways to gain access to a device is to hide an HDMI device inside of a
charging station so that any device that connects to charge is
immediately broadcasting everything on screen to an attacker.
(Schlesinger J and Day A, 2016)
Use a travel phone with no personal or sensitive information on it
(Murphey B, 2014). If you travel a lot, consider an extra phone that
you can use to connect to the internet. Using this phone with no
personal data on it will protect your main phone from an attack if it
is not connected. Avoid using the spare phone for business and do
not have any personal or business information stored on it. You
should still be wary of connecting it to the internet to do business
work, however if there is no information stored on it you will be
protected from an attack on your data.
Do not use public Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi is generally unprotected and
connecting to it could expose your device (laptop or mobile phone)
to any number of malicious attacks or attempts to gain access or
private data stored on the device. (Hoelscher P, 2018).
General security like firewalls, antispyware, encryption, and general
security reminders for cell phones and laptops. Please make sure
your laptop and/or phone is up to date with it’s security settings.
Firewalls, antispyware, and encryption should always be used while
traveling. Do not click on anything suspicious while checking e-mail
or on the internet and try to not type in any passwords if you are
connected to a public area. You can save all passwords on an
encrypted USB drive and copy and paste passwords, this will ensure
if anyone has access to your device with a keylogger, they cannot
see what you type as it isn’t being typed.
If there are any questions please let me know as I have gone over
some of the most common problems that arise from travel. Please
remember, secure all laptops and mobile devices at all times unless
actively using them, do not charge in public from a charging station,
use a travel phone if you can instead of your personal one, avoid
public Wi-Fi if possible, and make sure devices are up to date on
security settings like firewalls and antispyware, also encrypt as many
things as you can without hindering the trip. Following these 5
things should drastically improve security.
Schlesinger J and Day A. (21 September 2016). Travelers beware!
That free charging station could hack your phone
. CNBC.
Accessed
3 April 2022. From: Travelers beware! That free charging station
could hack your phone (cnbc.com)
Murphey B. (4 November 2014). 13 Mobile Device Security Tips for
Foreign Business Travelers to China.
Red Zone Tech.
Accessed April
3 2022. From: 13 Mobile Device Security Tips for Foreign Business
Travelers to China | RedZone (redzonetech.net)
Hoelscher P. (28 August 2018). 30+ cybersecurity tips for travelers.
INFOSEC.
Accessed 3 April 2022. From: 30+ cybersecurity tips for
travelers - Infosec Resources (infosecinstitute.com)
Sincerely,
