When you’re going abroad on a business trip what do you worry about? Getting to the airport in time? Missing luggage? Getting food poisoning from trying out new food? These are all legitimate concerns, especially if you’re not yet used to a whole lot of travelling.

However there is something else that business travellers should be wary about: getting your devices hacked. The country you’re travelling to may not have the same privacy or confidentiality laws as Australia. Hence, when you connect to public Wi-Fi, there’s always a chance of your devices being hacked into. This can be especially worrisome if you’re carrying sensitive company data on your laptop or phone.

It’s always best to protect yourself from hackers when travelling abroad. How? Here are some great tips to help you with that:

Make Sure to Back up Your Data

Perhaps the whole point of your business trip is to give an in-person presentation to a prospective client. So losing your presentation file can have a disastrous impact. You may end up losing the client and get in trouble with your boss as well. Hence, we always recommend uploading all of your important documents to a secure cloud. Make sure you do this before you leave your house and not using public Wi-Fi.

It’s always great practice to backup data regularly to multiple sources. This way if one source is corrupted, you can retrieve it from another.

Your company may have its own protocol when it comes to backing up data. If it doesn’t, you should bring it up with upper management and stress the importance of it. If the company does not have its own cyber security department, hiring a reliable firm like Gridware can truly help you put together an effective data protection strategy.

Install Device-Locating Applications

With these applications, you’ll be able to find the exact location of your device if it gets stolen or misplaced. Both iOS and Android users have native device-locating features pre-installed. So all you need to do is to enable them before you leave the house.

Update Your Software

Before you leave for your business trip, make sure all your software, including operating system and anti-virus guards are up to date. This is important because developers send software updates in order to fix gaps in the previous one. Often these may concern cyber security vulnerabilities.

If you don’t already have security software installed, do it right away.

Practice Strong Password Management

If your passwords are easy to guess, then you’re just asking to be hacked. Good password management is a very effective barrier against cyber-attacks and will ensure the protection of your data in most scenarios. Hence, when putting up passwords, make sure they are:

• Not obvious and quite difficult to figure out.
• Not the same across all of your devices and accounts.
• Changed regularly.

Use Two-Factor Authentication

With two-factor authentication, you need to provide an additional detail such as your phone number or an answer to a security question in order to log in. It’s an additional layer of security for your social media and other private accounts.

Don’t take cyber security lightly, especially when it comes to company data. Practice these tips and ensure data confidentiality at all times.