Vacations can be a great way to relax but if you let guard down, you could wind up with souvenirs you didn't plan on. It doesn't matter if you are traveling locally or abroad, it's always a great idea to keep safety in mind. Here are a few tips to keep your self and identity safe while traveling.
1. Inform your credit/debit card company of your travel dates and locations
This has the benefit of ensuring that when you are traveling, your transactions do not get marked as fraudulent by mistake. Perhaps a more important benefit is that when you return from your travels, the company will know you are no longer making purchases in that country and flag them as fraudulent.
2. Use cash wherever possible
The great thing about cash is that it does not have any way to identify you. If someone steals your cash, that is all they have. If they take your credit card information, they have your money and possibly your identity. When traveling abroad, most places will have a currency exchange available at your arrival point. If you are already on your anniversary trip to Costa Rica while reading this and didn’t think to bring physical currency, most hotels will allow you to get cash out that will be applied to your room bill. And if that is the case, why are you reading a dumb blog online instead of enjoying time with your hot spouse? Don't answer that. Using cash also means lowering the chance that your credit card information will be skimmed and sold online to buy those Air Jordans I always wanted.
3. Protect your ID
Anywhere you travel by plane, you are going to need some sort of ID. If you are traveling to another country, assuming you are legally traveling there, you will need a passport. Your ID is a way of proving who you are because it is backed by the issuing body, often your state or federal government. Everyone knows how important an ID is in their day-to-day life. You need it to board a plane, buy restricted items, open a bank account, and show your friends how fit you looked 6 years ago. When traveling abroad, it is even more important. If someone takes your ID, you could be left stranded in a foreign country for quite a while until the issue can be sorted out. Not only would you be stranded, but someone could use the information an ID or passport provides to gain access to your financial accounts.
4. Check travel advisories
The U.S. Department of State has a website that provides details on current travel advisories. You can input your destination to find out additional details on what to watch out for. The site primarily warns about physical dangers such as crime, theft, abductions, and covid, but usually neglects to mention cyber threats. I'm going to assume if you are reading this, that you already have an interest in learning about cyber security and by now you should know that it is an issue anywhere you travel. If you don't have an interest in cyber security and just stumbled upon this blog while browsing r/MediocreBlogs on Reddit, then you might learn something accidently.
5. Know the Area
You should do some research about the area surrounding your destination. Learn which streets or neighborhoods might not be friendly to tourists and which ones will greet you with genuine enthusiasm. Learn where the local emergency services are. If you are travelling abroad, learn where your home countries embassy is located. Now before you say "Skutts, everyone has a smart phone now. There’s no need to learn anything", you need to know that you can't always rely on cellular service depending on where you travel. You also can't rely on Doug, the friendly neighborhood pickpocket, to have a change of heart right before he swipes your cell phone out of your retro fanny pack.
6. Protect Yourself and your family
The last and probably most important tip that I, some random stranger on the interwebs, can offer is to protect yourself and your family first. Protecting your identity and possessions is important, but not at the cost of your life or those who you care about. No 401k or collection of meme stonks is worth anything if you aren't around to enjoy it. If you find yourself in a situation where the options are losing your cash or your life, I strongly urge you to ditch the cash as fast as possible, and not just because I don't want to lose one of my precious readers. After the situation has been resolved, take a deep breath and contact the authorities. If the authorities are the ones who relieved you of your cash, then you might have picked the wrong place to travel to.
Here are some helpful links that can keep you safe and informed during your travels:
How do you tell if WiFi is trustworthy while traveling?
ReplyDeleteThat is a great question! Ideally you would not wan't to use wifi at all but that isn't always an option. If you are at your hotel, check with the front desk for the name of the wifi network. I would also recommend asking if they have a captive portal and what information they require. If they are only asking for a name and room number, then it is likely safe to proceed. If you are traveling outside of the hotel and need to use wifi, I would ask the same questions of the place you are at. It wouldn't be hard for someone to setup a fake hotspot named "Super Best Cafe WiFi" to trick people into connected when Super Best Cafe doesn't even have wifi. It would also be a best practice to use a VPN on your devices while traveling so the end-to-end encryption would help secure your network traffic. Be weary of free VPN services though. If something is free, then you are the product.
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