Tip of the Week: Planning Your Holiday Travels? Have A Plan For Productivity

Back to school is upon us and then it’s a hop, skip, and jump until the holidays arrive. With more companies allowing their employees to work remotely, holiday travel will mean that people are going to be taking their work on the road with them. Preventing credit card and identity theft has been a priority for shoppers during the season for many years. It’s important that the same security considerations be given to technology being used for business while traveling.

1. Know Wi-Fi Options. In order to be productive while away from the office, you need to make sure that you’ll have access to stable Internet/WiFi. Many companies use VPNs to create secure connections from their networks to a mobile device. If you’re staying at a hotel, make sure that they’ll have WiFi to meet your needs. Reading through the hotels reviews on pages like Yelp! or Trip Advisor will let you see what other guests have said about WiFi signals.
2. Bring Extra Accessories Just in Case. It never hurts to have an extra set of technology accessories like LAN cables, Micro-USB cords, charging bricks, portable mouses, etc. You’ll be happy to have an extra when you see that buying one from an airport or tourist destination costs a small fortune.
3. Avoid Checking Your Devices. Even if you’re not going to work while traveling to your destination, it’s important to keep devices needed for work in a carryon, rather than checked into the cargo hold. Think about how upset your boss would be if you were authorized to work remotely over the holiday but had your laptop or tablet cracked or lost before you even got to your destination.
4. Beware of Free WiFi. Believe it or not, there are actually people who wait around for someone to logon using an insecure WiFi Connection. Open WiFi should be avoided whenever possible. Having your identity stolen is bad enough. Don’t put your customers’ personal information into jeopardy because you wanted to check your email.
5. Turn Off Autofill and Password Management: While it is certainly convenient to use a password manager for work purposes, it’s a good idea to disable it while traveling. If someone steals your device with a password manager on it, you’re basically giving them a key into your personal information, your company’s information and your clients’ information. Having to type passwords manually for a few days will be worth it.
6. Use External Harddrive or USB To Back Up Regularly on the Go: Imagine having worked on a project throughout your vacation, only to learn that your device was damaged or misplaced - and now you have nothing. If you’re not connecting to your network regularly, your work may not be backing up properly. Bring an external or USB drive along to save any progress you might have made. Even if your computer does backup regularly on its own, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

These are just a few of the things that you should be doing when working while traveling - or whenever you’re working away from the office. If you have any questions about using your technology on the road, make sure you check with your IT team or call us at 607.433.2200.