Cybersecurity Tips for Summer Travel

If you’re looking to plan a vacation before summer ends, you’re not alone. Over 93 million Americans will take at least one trip between June and August. This massive travel surge occurs yearly, but many travelers fail to ensure their cybersecurity on these vacations. No matter where you visit or how you plan to travel, keeping up with your cybersecurity is necessary to keep you and your private data safe. Take a look at our list of cybersecurity tips for summer travel and learn more about protecting yourself online when you’re on the go. 

Cybersecurity Tips for Summer Travel

Traveling safely is important, and part of being safe when you travel is keeping your private information secure. When traveling to other cities, states, and countries, you can easily put yourself at risk of a cybersecurity attack. Airports, train stations, and even hotels have been known to compromise the safety of a user’s cybersecurity. The following tips will help you learn more about the different ways to protect yourself from online security threats when you travel. 

Secure Your Accounts

When we talk about adding more security to your accounts, there are a few different ways to do it. First, you should add two-factor authentication to your profiles and devices to ensure an added layer of security. Next, you’ll want to boost the privacy of your social media accounts by updating the location settings or even making your profiles private entirely. Finally, it’s important to update your passwords to ensure that they’re both strong and unique to prevent anyone from stealing your credentials.

Choose Your Wi-Fi Carefully

Not all Wi-Fi is created equal. In fact, some Wi-Fi networks do more harm than good. When you visit airports, restaurants, coffee shops, and other public places, you may be inadvertently putting your data at risk. Public networks often have reduced security in order to allow for more users, but this introduces a way for cybercriminals to hack into that network and steal data from unsuspecting guests. If you choose to use public Wi-Fi, be sure to use a VPN and avoid sending any sensitive data while on the network.  

Manage Your Location Services

Each app and device gives you the ability to adjust its location services. When you travel, it’s especially important to update your location settings. Although you may need to use maps or similar applications to get around, other apps that require your location data may be exposing you to cybercriminals without your knowledge. Be sure to turn off location services for your photos and social media accounts when you travel. 

Review New Apps Before Downloading

Downloading new apps on vacation is becoming an increasingly popular trend. Parking apps are a way for drivers to quickly pay for their parking spot, and some even assist in reminding them where they left their vehicles. Museums and galleries also sometimes offer apps for guided tours. However, it’s important to check the privacy policy of every app you download, regardless of whether or not it seems totally harmless. This can save you from surrendering your personal information without knowing it. 

Avoid Public Devices

Having a computer lab at a hotel or airport can be convenient for some, but they present a huge cybersecurity risk. Logging in to public devices with your personal information can put your data at risk of being stolen or compromised. It’s impossible to know whether or not a public device is truly safe since there can be many different types of software that mimic normal applications. Your best bet is to avoid utilizing public devices at hotels, or other locations, altogether.

Back-Up Your Data

Before you travel, backing up your personal data is always a great idea. This includes the data on your phone, laptop, tablet, or any other device that you might bring with you on vacation. This is helpful for several reasons. If you lose your device, you can still access your data from the backup. It can also be useful if your device is compromised or infected and needs to be reset. Saving your data to secure cloud-based storage can give you more peace of mind the next time you go on vacation. 

Use a VPN When Traveling

You may already know that a VPN can help you get lower costs on flights and other travel tickets, but did you know that using a VPN on vacation can also be helpful? Masking your true digital location when you travel can give you an added boost of enhanced security. Plus, you can even access content back home through your favorite apps by using the right VPN server. Regardless of how you plan to spend your vacation, using a VPN during your trip is the right move if you want to keep yourself, and your data, secure. 

Reliable Cybersecurity Protection from PrivadoVPN

Whether you’re taking a plane, train, or automobile, it’s important to keep your data safe during summer travel. PrivadoVPN makes it easy to give yourself the robust protection you deserve from anywhere in the world. With unlimited monthly data, access to hundreds of secure global servers, and additional security features like SOCKS5 proxy integration and split-tunneling, you’ll be able to rest assured knowing that your information is safe. Before your next trip, be sure to download PrivadoVPN. Sign up today!