For many, Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial kickoff to the summer travel season. In fact, 59% of Americans plan to take warm weather sojourns – up from 51% last year. With Americans spending over 8 billion minutes per month interacting with digital travel content, the likelihood is you will book your trip online. By following these travel planning "to-dos," you can help protect yourself from cyber criminals looking for easy vacationer prey.- Lock down your login. Get ready for your summer trek by fortifying your online accounts and enabling the strongest authentication tools available, such as biometrics, security keys or a unique one-time code through an app on your mobile device.
- Keep a clean machine. As your best line of defense, it’s important to make sure all security and critical software is up to date on your internet-connected devices before you leave town. Keep devices and apps updated during travel, too.
- Make sure all devices are password protected. Bolt your digital doors and be sure to use a passcode or security feature (like a finger swipe) to lock your mobile device.
- Think before you app. Review an app’s privacy policy and understand what data (such as location and entry to your social networks) it can access on your device before you download.
- Own your online presence. Not everyone has to know about your travel escapades and summer fun: set the privacy and security preferences on web services and devices to your comfort level for sharing. It is okay to limit how and with whom you share information – especially when you are away.
Source: National Cyber Security Alliance.