Travel has become more connected than ever.
Your smartphone may hold your boarding passes, hotel confirmations, restaurant reservations, photos, maps, banking apps, email, contacts, and even the digital key to your hotel room. Your tablet or laptop may contain sensitive personal or business information. And while all of that technology makes travel easier, it also creates another consideration: cybersecurity while you are away from home.
Fortunately, protecting yourself does not require becoming a cybersecurity expert.
A few thoughtful habits before and during your trip can significantly reduce your exposure to common threats—and help you enjoy your travels with greater confidence.
Why Cybersecurity Matters More When You Travel
When you travel, you are constantly moving between unfamiliar environments and unfamiliar networks.
You may connect to Wi-Fi at an airport, hotel, restaurant, lounge, or on an airplane. You may charge your phone using a public charging station. You may log into your bank from a hotel room or respond to an email while sitting in a café. You may also be more likely to click quickly on a message because it appears to involve a flight, hotel reservation, gate change, or other time-sensitive travel detail.
CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, specifically warns travelers about unsecured wireless networks, publicly accessible computers, physical theft or loss of devices, and phishing attempts.
The good news is that many of the most effective protections are remarkably simple.
Before You Leave: Prepare Your Devices
The best time to improve your digital security is before you travel, not after something goes wrong. Here are some ways to prepare your devices before departing on your next journey.
Make sure your phone, tablet, laptop, apps, browser, and security software are current before departure. Security updates often address vulnerabilities that criminals could otherwise exploit. CISA recommends keeping operating systems, software, and security protections up to date.
Automatic updates are especially helpful because they reduce the chance that an important security patch will be overlooked.
Before a trip, back up important contacts, photographs, documents, and other data to a trusted device or cloud service.
A backup will not prevent a cyberattack or theft, but it can make the consequences much easier to manage if your device is lost, stolen, damaged, or compromised.
Pro-Traveler Tip: If you’re taking prescription medication with you, be sure to photograph each prescription bottle. This helps you document your medications and dosages in case you need to refill them or show proof to customs or healthcare providers.
A password alone is not always enough to protect an account.
Multi-factor authentication, or MFA, adds another layer of verification when you sign in. CISA recommends enabling MFA for accounts such as email, banking, and social media whenever it is available.
This is particularly important while traveling because your email account can be a gateway to many other accounts. A criminal who gains access to your email may be able to reset passwords or intercept important communications.
Avoid using the same password for multiple accounts. Use long, strong, unique passwords and save them in a reputable password manager to help manage them.
This may not feel like a travel-specific precaution, but it becomes particularly valuable when your devices and accounts are carrying so much travel information.
Public Wi-Fi: Convenient Does Not Mean Carefree
Free Wi-Fi can be one of the great conveniences of modern travel—but it deserves a little caution.
Be sure to confirm the exact name of a public Wi-Fi network and its login procedure with appropriate staff before connecting. Criminals can create networks with names very similar to legitimate airport, hotel, restaurant, or airline networks in an attempt to trick you into connecting to the wrong one.
Instead of automatically selecting the strongest-looking signal, take a moment to verify the network.
Your Mobile Connection May Be the Better Choice
When practical, your phone’s cellular connection or personal hotspot can be a good alternative to public Wi-Fi. CISA recommends using your own mobile network or personal hotspot when possible because it can provide a more secure connection than a public wireless network.
That makes your cellular connection an excellent option for activities that involve sensitive information.
Consider Using a VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) can provide another layer of protection when you are traveling and need to connect to the internet through a public or unfamiliar network.
A VPN creates an encrypted connection between your device and the VPN service, helping protect your internet traffic from being easily observed by others on the same network. While CISA recommends using a VPN when a secure connection is needed over public wireless networks, we recommend using one at all times when traveling so that you don’t have to remember to turn it on.
When traveling, a VPN can be particularly useful when connecting through Wi-Fi at airports, hotels, cafés, or other public locations.
Think of a VPN as one layer of your cybersecurity strategy—not a magic shield. You should still verify that a public Wi-Fi network is legitimate, keep your device and software updated, use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication, and avoid clicking suspicious links.
It is also important to choose a reputable VPN provider and keep the VPN software current. VPNs themselves can have vulnerabilities and that their security depends in part on the devices using them.
If you regularly work remotely, handle sensitive information, or frequently use public Wi-Fi, adding a reputable VPN to your travel cybersecurity toolkit can be a worthwhile extra layer of protection.
Be Thoughtful About What You Do on Public Networks
Even when you take precautions, it is wise to think carefully about what information you transmit over public Wi-Fi.
CISA advises travelers to avoid banking, online shopping, and other sensitive activities requiring passwords or payment information while using public Wi-Fi. At the same time, it is worth putting this advice into perspective.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) notes that today’s widespread use of website encryption means public Wi-Fi is not automatically dangerous in the way it once was. Travelers should still use caution by looking for “https” (the “s” stands for Secure, indicating that the connection is encrypted to protect data transmitted between a web browser and a website) when browsing.
In other words, you do not have to panic every time you connect to hotel Wi-Fi. Just be deliberate about what you do once you’re connected.
Your Phone Is More Valuable Than You Think
Your smartphone is probably one of the most important things you take on vacation—and one of the most information-rich.
It may give you access to your email, banking, travel accounts, personal photos, contacts, and authentication codes. That makes protecting the physical device just as important as protecting the information traveling through it.
CISA recommends paying attention to physical device security and warns travelers to avoid connecting their mobile devices to computers or charging stations they do not control.
Be Careful Where You Plug In
Public charging stations may be convenient, but you should avoid connecting a mobile device to a computer or charging station you do not control. A malicious computer could potentially interact with your device in unintended ways.
A simple travel habit is to carry your own charging block and cable and use a standard electrical outlet whenever practical.
Don’t Leave Bluetooth Running Unnecessarily
CISA also recommends turning off Bluetooth when it is not in use. You may not need to think about this every minute of your trip, but it is a sensible precaution when you are moving through crowded public spaces.
Bluesnarfing, Bluejacking, Bluebugging, Bluesmacking, and Car Whispering are some of the most common examples of Bluetooth vulnerabilities that exist today. To help minimize your risk of a Bluetooth attack, always shut Bluetooth off whenever you aren’t using it. Think of it like locking your door once you leave the house. By having Bluetooth shut off, you aren’t giving hackers the opportunity to target your device. Another added benefit of disabling Bluetooth: it may also increase your device’s battery life.
Be Suspicious of Unexpected Travel Messages
Few things capture a traveler’s attention faster than a message that says:
Your flight has changed.
Your reservation needs attention.
Your payment failed.
Click here to confirm your booking.
That urgency is exactly what scammers can exploit.
The FTC warns that scammers create convincing fake travel websites and send phishing emails that appear to come from recognizable airlines or hotels. These messages may direct travelers to fraudulent websites designed to collect personal information or money.
CISA similarly advises users to be cautious with suspicious messages, particularly those that create urgency, request personal or financial information, or contain unexpected links or attachments.
The Safest Response Is to Verify Independently
Suppose you receive a message saying your hotel reservation has been canceled. Rather than clicking the link in the message, open the hotel’s official website yourself, use the trusted app you normally use to manage your reservation, or reach out to your travel advisor (hopefully us).
Likewise, a supposed airline notification can be verified through the airline’s official app or website.
Do not let urgency replace verification. That single habit can protect you from a remarkable number of scams.
Travelers naturally want to share beautiful experiences—and there is nothing wrong with that.
But there is a difference between sharing your trip and announcing your movements in real time to everyone who can see your account.
CISA’s travel guidance recommends being cautious about publicly announcing that you are away from home, limiting the personal information shared online, and considering location and geotagging settings.
Consider waiting to post certain photographs until after you return, particularly when the post reveals your exact location or that your residence is currently unoccupied.
You do not have to disappear from social media while traveling. Simply remember that privacy is part of cybersecurity, too.
Avoid Public Computers for Sensitive Accounts
Hotel business centers, airport computers, libraries, and other publicly accessible computers may be convenient, but you have limited control over your privacy and security.
CISA specifically warns that public computers may not have current security protections and could potentially contain malicious software, including keyloggers that capture what users type.
For that reason, avoid using a public computer to access banking, email, sensitive work accounts, or other services containing personal information whenever possible. Your own device is usually the better option.
What Happens If Your Device Is Lost or Stolen?
Even with careful planning, accidents happen. A phone can be left in an airport lounge. A laptop can disappear from a hotel room. A tablet can be misplaced in a taxi.
That is why preparation matters.
Make sure your device has a screen lock, use biometric authentication where possible, and know how to remotely locate or disable your device(s) through your device manufacturer’s security tools.
It is also important to know what to do with your accounts if you believe a device has been compromised. CISA recommends contacting the affected financial institution or service provider promptly, changing compromised passwords from a different device you control, and taking steps to limit further damage.
The faster you respond, the better.
Don’t Leave Your Digital Security to Chance
You do not need to become a cybersecurity expert before your next trip. But you do need a plan.
And because the easiest time to discover a vulnerability is before you are standing in an airport, checking into a hotel, or trying to figure out whether that text message about your flight is legitimate, preparation matters. The goal is not to become suspicious of every Wi-Fi network, every text message, or every charging station. It is simply to develop a few smart habits that become second nature.
Because a well-planned journey should protect more than just where you are going. It should also protect what you are bringing with you.
Take Your Travel Security Checklist With You
Want an easy way to make sure you’ve covered the essentials before you leave?
The LEATA Cybersecurity While Traveling Checklist puts the most important pre-trip and on-the-road security steps in one convenient place—so you can prepare your devices, protect your accounts, travel more confidently, and worry less about what could go wrong.
Request your free LEATA Cybersecurity While Traveling Checklist and make digital security part of your travel preparation—before you ever leave home.
Your Journey Deserves More Than a Great Itinerary
The best travel experiences rarely happen by accident. They happen because someone thought ahead. Someone considered the details you might never think to ask about, anticipated the problems you might encounter, and built a plan designed to keep those problems from getting in the way of your experience.
That is what thoughtful travel planning is all about. Here at LEATA, we look beyond the itinerary to the details that can make—or disrupt—your journey. From cybersecurity and travel logistics to the countless considerations that come with traveling well, our goal is simple: to remove the problems standing between you and the travel experience you imagine.
Ready to Travel With Greater Confidence?
Let’s plan a journey where the details are handled, the unexpected is anticipated, and you can focus on being exactly where you came to be.
Discover what personalized travel planning with LEATA can do for you.
