Traveling can be a high-stress situation whether you have to run for a flight or are left stuck in an airport lounge for hours at a time. When you are outside of familiar surroundings it can be a chore to make sure that you and all of your items stay safe. Hotel conferences, out of town meetings and even vacations can be a bad place to lose your laptop or have it stolen.
When you are travelling with your business laptop, you may be unaware of some of the risks that you may be facing. Business competitors and hackers are given a great opportunity to steal your info right from underneath you. Imagine someone getting unlimited access to your company secrets and data while you are away from home!
Information thieves are no longer limited to just the option of stealing your laptop unit. There are plenty of ways that they can gain access to your information without you even being aware. They can even hijack your files by USB. Take care with your laptop security when you are away from the office with these simple steps.
Disable Boot Drive Startup
One of the many ways that a hacker can gain access to your laptop data is by discreetly inserting a USB drive and restarting your computer so that it launches through the invading drive and allows them to access all of your important files. To prevent this you should go into your administrative settings and disable all of your boot drives. This will block any attempts via USB to pirate any of your information by making the port ignored for startup purposes.
Use Secure Passwords
Passwords are your first line of defence against hackers. Not only should you have a password for when the computer starts up, your laptop should also require you to re-enter your password after it is in sleep mode or hibernation. Passwords should be unique and very hard for a hacker to “guess”.
Simple passwords like “1234” or your name are not sufficient enough security to protect your laptop. A combination of letters, numbers and symbols is a much more effective password to maintain a high level of security.
Use A VPN
Hotels, conference centers and airports that have a public wifi system can be a dream for a hacker. They can be relatively simple to access without authorization leaving anyone connected at risk. When you are connected to public portal, you should be using a VPN or Virtual Private Network to conduct all of your online activity. This will provide you with a secure and encrypted information tunnel that hackers will not be able to see or access.
Whether you use your laptop for gaming or for business, using a VPN is one way of securing your data.
Stay Updated
Don’t ignore your computer’s prompts for system updates. Although they may pop up at an inconvenient time (such as, while you are working) it is important to keep your laptop as updated as possible. especially with anti-virus software. Ignoring important updates can leave your system open and vulnerable to malware, viruses or hackers.
Lock It Up
This may seem like the most obvious of security measures, but it is still often ignored. While travelling, if you are not using your laptop, you should be securing it in your rooms’ safe or in a lockbox provided by the hotel. When you are flying, keep your laptop in your carry-on luggage as opposed to your checked bags where you won’t be able to monitor it. If you need to have your laptop with you at all times, invest in a Kensington lock that will help deter anyone looking to make a quick grab.
