Vacation should be about fun in the sun and relaxation. But if you don’t protect your computer while travelling, you can become victim to hackers or cyber criminals who want to infect your computer with malware and steal your personal information. Having to deal with spyware or a virus is the last thing you want to have deal with on vacation, so here are some tips on how to keep your computer safe while on the road.
1. Install anti-virus software
You should never be on the internet at home or while travelling without anti-virus software installed on your computer. Anti-virus software is essential to preventing attacks and destruction of important data. Always make sure your software is updated with the newest virus definitions, and run a scan routinely to detect security compromises.
2. Make a backup of your data before you leave home
File backups are vital in case your computer does get infected or your hard drive crashes. There are several ways you can backup your data at home: external hard drive, online through a service such as Dropbox, a USB Flash Drive, or on a remote cloud computer. Backing up files today is relatively easy and should become habit since you can’t predict when something may go wrong.
3. Turn your firewall on
If you are using Wi-Fi, always have your firewall on and keep it on. Firewalls provide an additional layer of security by preventing malicious programs from accessing and damaging your computer.
4. Make sure the network is encrypted with WPA2
Wi-Fi network connections in hotels and public places are generally encrypted using WEP, WPA or WPA2 encryption. WPA2 is the most secure and ideally this is what you want when connecting to a hotspot. You can easily check if to see if a network connection is using WPA2 when you search for available networks and enter in a password. If in doubt, ask someone at the front desk of the hotel or a technical support employee.
5. Lock up your computer
This may seem obvious, but many people do not password protect their computer. If your laptop is lost while on vacation and its not password protected, someone could access all your personal files and information. For even stronger protection, encrypt your sensitive information with a free program such as TrueCrypt which will make it virtually impossible for thieves to access any data.