General Security when Traveling

Many of you will need to travel for work or for a vacation. Some travel within your own country, others will be outside your country. With the changes to borders by various countries, you now need to be more vigilant on what you keep with you that may get searched or used against you.

Short of leaving all your electronic devices home or having a security detail watch you everywhere you go, there are steps you can do to protect your privacy from snooping and some actions to keep your persons safe as well. This is not an end all fix all, a change in legislation and ideology is the only way to fix that.

Some of these suggestions may help, some may not. Governmental polices and feelings are to in flux so there is no hard and fast solution. With that being said, I am not responsible if the options do not work for you. These are guideline and general options:

• Yourself and ones close to you

  • Try to fit in to the environment you find yourself in, be like the locals, dress like the locals. Some countries have expected dress codes for different genders, some do not. Spend some time getting to know it and what the history of the location is.

  • Set up meeting places if you get separated from your group. People are going want to explore if they have never been to the location before. That is good, it helps you grow. Some of that exploring may get you separated from others or if there is a major event and chaos becomes the norm, you will need places to find others that may have gotten swept up in the event. Have multiple places, not a lot maybe two or three. Depending on the event some location may be better than others. Some location may be the center of the event other may just be passed by like they do not exist. The do not exist places are the safest, again it will depend on the event, so having a few, and everyone knowing about them will be helpful. They can be most anything, statues, gas stations, hotels, churches, a locally known person’s house. But remember they can also be the worst places to be, so just note the event and chose carefully.

  • Make note of the location you are staying at. If it is a hotel note the escape areas, stairs and elevators. Note the area around the hotel and the buildings near it, can you jump to the next building if needed or can you climb out the window using bed sheets? Are you able to get to a location or can you defend in place if needed? Noted from one of my executive protections professors, set up zones of protection around yourself. Things you can drop if needed and things you need to keep close. Note things you may be able to barter with, like jewelry or even shoes. If you worried about losing mom’s priceless ring heirloom then leave it at home, you don’t need to show it off that badly. In fact leave most of your jewelry at home, maybe take knock off stuff but keep the good stuff at home. Keeping things like medicine, passports, money, things you need to have at all time, place them in something that you can grab quickly and go.

  • Learn the history of the place, when I talk of history I do not mean ancient history, I mean recent history. Has the location had any large scale events, such as earthquakes, upheavals in governments, civil unrest, things on that type. Have some knowledge of the location where you will be staying, its main roads, airports, travel places.

  • Have a quick escape plan, if you need to leave how will you do it and where will you go? Make sure everyone knows it and knows what to do.

• Electronic devices

  • Next to yourself and family many people will feel that their electronic devices are like a second child to them. I am talking about their cell phone, tablet or laptop. These devices hold more data about you than most of the paperwork you may have in your lock-boxes. Personal contacts, social media, account numbers, search histories, all this information can create a profile about yourself that is very accurate and can be used to cause harm or simple embarrassment if not kept secure. It’s called “Metadata” It alone can create a very accurate profile on you, your likes, habit’s and how you live. It can show links to people that you may not care about but may flag you because of someone else may be a person of interest to others, so you now become a person of interest. Guilt by association. In the past this was not really an issue, but in this day and age its more and more relevant. With the new policies in the US and its boarders, searching of your laptop and phone’s contents has become more widespread. Even to the point of forcing you to login any social media so it can be copied for later viewing. Removing you phone from your sight and copying all its contents is another now normal at boarders. Sure you can resist, but you will be tired, hungry, and you are stuck in an environment that others control. Its easier to just give in and let them win. If you do some preparing beforehand you can minimize some of the loss of privacy, not all but you will be more in control of the data they will have access to.

  • For your cell phone if you can use a burner phone, then buy and use it. Its safer for you because if its stolen or border control want to look at it, there is not much of your private data that can be tracked, then your just out that phone and the hours you put on it, not your main phone. If you have to take your personal smart phone then make sure it is encrypted. Many new phones have options to encrypt it when it is turned off. It is still possible the border people will want you to turn it on but its something. Another step is to remove all your social media apps from the phone. Twitter, Facebook, snapchat, dropbox, etc. Log out and clear your cache from the phone. Look into apps that will have encrypted sections you can store data in if you need to have the data. I know smartphones have wonderful cameras so you will have photos of your trip, if you can keep them in secure storage all the better. Have a few G rated images on the phone to make it look like you do use it so less change of sticking out in a search.

  • For your laptop, that is a tough one. My recommendation is not to take it at all. But if you really feel you need one with you, then use one like a chrome laptop. Having no OS for them to search and using the web only so your information is reasonably secure. Have two accounts, one main, and one you use to auto boot it up to have them look at if forced. If you feel you need to have it then have hard-drive boot encryption and encrypted folders. This will keep your mind at ease if it gets it stolen or lost but not as much of told to boot it up so they can make a copy of the hard-drive. Another option is to have it shipped to the place you are going, not one I recommend easily for small person business but larger corporation may have that option. Some smart phones have encrypted micro SD cards, you can store needed data on them and insert it when at your location. When using your laptop have it run a VPN that you setup before you leave on the travel. If that is not possible then use TOR or some other type of anonymous web serving solution. One never knows who may be sniffing the traffic at the location or in-between you and your location. I should not need to remind you not to do banking or accessing sites of a private personal nature when traveling, if you do then you get what’s coming to you.

• General

  • Be helpful but not overly so. If not asked, don’t give information. You need to keep remembering they do not work for your protection, they work for the government’s protections.

  • Use a VPN at all times if you are browsing and non-home network connection. If not able to install a VPN, then use TOR to keep some of your searching anonymous. When you order a VPN make note of their log policy, find one that does not log anything, and look for ones that have multiple countries you can connect to. Watch out for VPN fakes, they will sell you a fake do nothing VPN’s, so do research on ratings.

  • If they take your devices out of your sight, then I would treat them as a bio-hazard and never use or turn them on again. If they leave your sight, then you never truly know if any spyware apps have been installed on the device. Safe now or sorry later, up to you.

• Don’t stay quiet if any of this happens to you or someone you know, write a letter to your congressmen, complain to the company, use other services, Ask why you are being singled out for the exposure, make a scene so other see the stupidity of what is going on. Don’t just sit back and let it happen. Seek legal action and let them know about it. Contact organizations like the EFF and Civil liabilities groups.