If you often get to travel overseas, whether for business reasons or simply for a vacation, you would usually be reliant on your mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, tablets or smartphones for prompt access to all of your digital information. Such portable electronic devices will typically offer you access to information as well as communication services, without regard to where your information are stored. If you are an employee of an organization traveling overseas to conduct business, then you should be completely aware of the uncertainties that you and the information you access would face when traveling, and should also understand the various measures you can take to bring down this risk factor.
The data that you access from overseas, or the information that you travel with might get to be compromised by potential threats and can be used against you as an individual or the organization you represent. Potential threats would be inclusive of competitors, criminals, and foreign and hostile intelligence services. The information that these threats target can be of different forms, like technical, personal, financial, military, or political, the compromise of which can impose a threat on a strategic, political, competitive, or economic advantage. The amount of risk associated with losing the information depends on the sensitivity or nature of the information itself.
If you possess sensitive or proprietary information of any type, you should aware of the potential consequences if that information is lost or stolen. The risk of losing your data increases greatly especially when traveling. The best possible measure to prevent data loss will be not to travel with it or access the information remotely in the first place. However, this is not a feasible solution.
Security Considerations
Following are some of the general security considerations when it comes to the threats associated with sensitive electronic information:
- If you hold a top executive position in an organization having access to most of the sensitive business data, then you might face higher risk as you will be targeted by way of your mobile devices.
- There are capabilities that enable threats to identify mobile devices, transfer malicious code, use the network connections of the device for their personal use, activate the device’s microphone, use the device to infect other networks, track your location using the device’s GPS, and intercept communications happening through the device.
- Mobile devices happen to be the main target for theft. Therefore, if you happen to lose your mobile device, the information you have saved in it might be used for illegal purposes.
- In certain countries, phone networks and business centers in hotels are monitored by respective authorities. You cannot expect privacy in any network connection that is available in public places like hotels, coffee shops, airports, offices and other public locations.
How to Avoid Such Threats?
When you are traveling abroad, employ certain reliable encryption mechanisms to protect your data. Data encryption is a technique that transforms your data to an unreadable format without possessing a decryption code. You can use this technique when you wish to send emails or other valuable files or data online and also to protect the data you have stored in your laptop or other devices.
The best and most cost-effective technique that can help you maintain all your information safe and secure wherever you go is referred to as a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This network establishes a secure encrypted tunnel by way of which you can transfer your files or information without having to worry about losing the same to cybercriminals. This technique prevents any cybercriminal from being able to monitor or track down your internet traffic, even when you are using a public network connection, like that of a public Wi-Fi hotspot. Also, by using a VPN connection, you will be able to bypass the internet censorships placed by different governments, corporations and other authorities, as well as get around geographic or regional restrictions placed by video streaming websites, when you are outside your home country.
Best VPNs to Attain Cyber Security
In order to attain complete cyber security, you can sign up with one of the following VPN service providers:
| Rank | Provider | Starting Price | Money Back | Visit Provider |
| 1 | ExpressVPN | $6.67 /Month | 30 Days |  |
| 2 | Hidemyass | $6.55/ Month | 30 Days | |
| 3 | iPVanish | $10.00/Month | 7 Days | |
| 4 | StrongVPN | $21/ 3 Months | 7 Days | |
| 5 | VyprVPN | $14.95/Month | 7 Days | |
