How Digital Security Hacks Are Impacting International Travel

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No one is 100% secure from digital attacks on your personal information while traveling abroad.  However, there are some things that travelers can do to help prevent their personal information and their identity from being compromised while traveling abroad, especially if they know hacking tactics used by many thieves.

Envista forensics created a comprehensive resource and infographic that is meant to help international travelers avoid identity theft or having their personal information compromised. Let’s take a look at some of the tips they suggest that will help to prevent a personal hack while traveling.

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When using payments while traveling, here are the tips that they suggest:

  • Tell your bank- Inform your banks and credit card companies that you use of your travel plans. You should include travel dates, locations you plan to visit and any other special instructions you might have.
  • Avoid debit cards- Credit cards are much safer when traveling aboard, and it’s easier to recover funds if they card is stolen. In developing countries, it’s a best practice to simply use cash.
  • Change your passwords- Before you depart for your trip, and immediately when you return, it is a best practice to change all your passwords to avoid being compromised.
  • Avoid online banking- Avoid logging into your bank while traveling abroad or entering your credit card information online, even if you happen to be logged on to a secure network. Some banks will let you create a one-time use virtual account number that will be linked to your credit card.
  • Use RFID sleeves- This is a great way to protect your credit and debit cards from a specific type of hack (RFID skimming). This is where a thief scans your cards for information with a special device.  Many credit and debit cards are now equipped to make payments by just holding them near a device, while could potentially be leveraged by thieves.  These sleeves will help to protect thieves from accessing your information.

On top of these helpful tips, they’ve also compiled a list of the most common hacking tactics as well as the top causes for security breaches, which I’ve listed both below.

Most common hacking tactics:

  1. Point-of-sale compromises (91%)
  2. Stolen passwords (81%)
  3. Hacking breaches (62%)
  4. Malware breaches (51%)
  5. Social media attacks (43%)

Top causes for security breaches:

  1. Data theft (36%)
  2. Improper data usage (19%)
  3. Unclassified (19%)
  4. Phishing, spoofing or social engineering (15%)
  5. Accidental data loss (3%)
  6. Device loss/theft (3%)
  7. IT errors (1%)
  8. Network disruption or DDOS (1%)
  9. Extortion, blackmail or disruption (.2%)

By knowing the most common digital security travel hacking tactics, you can take the first step towards preventing them from happening to you.  To learn more check out the full infographic below.

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