Traveling holds great excitement since you get a chance to explore your surroundings and experience a change of environment. Whether you travel for work purposes or enjoy an exciting getaway vacation and relax while basking in the sun, it’s always blissful to enjoy the beauty of the new destination. But, be sure to keep in mind the essential safety tips to remain safe from online and offline threats as you travel.
Indeed, even if your trip is strictly on a budget, traveling appetite springs its threats. Therefore, this article lists lots of helpful tips on how to stay safe, happy, and secure during your trip.
Pick a pen and paper, or lay back comfortably and read through all the tips you need to know as you set out (or are on the go already).
There are a few threats that we feel everyone should lookout for a while planning a trip. But we cover them later in this article; first, let’s get to the crazy spiky part of all this.
Here is a quick list of travel safety tips
- Be mindful of your social media updates: Oversharing on social media can give criminals an insight into your personal data and end up victimizing yourself.
- Always turn off your location: If your device updates your location automatically, turn the feature off to protect yourself from locational tracking.
- Be careful about your picture background: Avoid standing in front of popular landmarks during photography because it can be used to gather more data.
- Avoid pre-trip updates: Keep your travel plans confidential because they can be used against you.
- Review those you tag in pictures: Tweak your social media settings to control how your photos are shared online.
- Avoid using public Wi-Fi: Unsecured Wi-Fi makes your device vulnerable to cyberattacks.
- Use a VPN: A VPN encrypts your data and allows you to view geo-restricted content.
- Log out from your accounts when no longer in use: Always log out of any application or account after using it to prevent unauthorized access.
- Install anti-theft apps on your devices: Anti-theft apps can help you recover your lost device when traveling.
- Turn on 2-factor authentication: An alternative authentication method secures your account even from people with your password.
Why you should worry about online safety while traveling?
The world is slowly becoming increasingly insecure, primarily due to the prominence of hackers and identity thieves online. But, unfortunately, not everyone puts that into consideration. Most people are clueless about all the bad things that could happen in this digital era.
Being aware of all the security threats is not enough. How you handle them is what matters. Remember, there is always trouble lurking in the shadows; it’s imperative to protect yourself.
When you are away, both physical security and cybersecurity are critical.
But what makes me unsafe online while traveling, we hear you ask.
Well, when you move from one place to another, you not only get to explore a new area physically but also unknowingly step into a different online world.
The most straightforward demonstration of it is the change of your IP location. When you go online by interacting with a different ISP, you get a new IP address with a new online location tag.
Furthermore, given the various digital and cybersecurity regulations implemented by the governments, you come under different legal obligations for online safety practices. Consequently, the kind of digital threats directed at you also become different.
This pretty much elaborates why online safety is as important as your physical security while traveling.
In fact, given the ever-evolving online security threats, digital travel safety tips are of high priority.
Ironically, while most people tend to take care of their physical security on the go, they have no idea how to protect their privacy online.
That begs us to cover travel security digital tips first because you should protect yourself online before reaching a new destination.