Security Tip - Safe Summer Travels

Whether it’s ocean breezes, mountain air, wide-open spaces or exotic locales, summer vacation is just around the corner for many of us.  As you begin making reservations and packing travel essentials, review these important tips to help ensure your personal information remains safe and secure: 

Before You Go – Avoid posting too much information about your travel plans.  Move devices and other valuables away from windows.  Ask a friend or neighbor to retrieve mail and packages and turn the lights on and off.  Notify your bank and credit card companies.

While You’re Traveling - If you will be traveling internationally, you may want to turn off Wi-Fi when entering a new country.  There have been incidents where travelers arriving at the airport connect to a fake Wi-Fi and are hit with a man-in-the-middle attack.  So it’s a good practice to turn Wi-Fi off until you can verify the SSID of a legit establishment with Wi-Fi.  The same goes for Bluetooth—only turn it on when you need it when traveling.

Avoid Situations That Can Put Your Personal Information at Risk – Be on the lookout for “shoulder surfing”.  Be aware when using ATMs, and shield the keypad when entering your PIN.  Be mindful of your surroundings and secure all electronic devices.

Control Your Social Media - Many times, hackers will use information about you to make it more likely that you will click on a link.  And the most common place for them to get that personal information is social media sites.  Avoid posting location information and limit your vacation messages on social sites.  While it can be fun to tell everyone where you are going or what you are doing, that information also lets folks know that you are gone, which can put your home at risk of robbery.

For those backyard BBQs or gatherings of the neighborhood kids for a video game marathon, setup your home Wi-Fi with a separate network for guests.  They can still browse the Internet while keeping them separate from your internal home network.  They will also automatically reconnect to that guest portal the next time they are in the vicinity of your router.