I was recently asked to recommend some software for a client’s friend to use while traveling out of the country so they wouldn’t get ‘hacked’ As I struggled to think of any one package that could make them safe I realized this was actually a larger question.
When traveling abroad you will more than likely stand out from the locals. Also if they are scanning all the phones in the area they will not recognize your phone and there is always the possibility that the local service provider in the area has some employees that ‘moonlight’. Several issues come to mind and I’ll try to address the basic ones.
There are several things that can happen:
1. your phone can get it’s information stolen and be ‘cloned’
2. you could lose passwords and user ids to some of your sites
3. emails could be intercepted and web traffic monitored
First lets address the difference between iphones and android devices. According to CoCospy – Iphones are easily cloned by acquiring their icloud credentials. Android phones on the other hand cannot be cloned unless you have physical access to them. It would make some sense not to travel with an iphone if you can avoid it.
The real danger lies in using wifi at hotels and restaurants. This lowers the bar for hackers and without getting too technical here it gives them an opportunity to steal ids and passwords as your phone visits sites. (ie.. and icloud checkin or picture upload, or a bank or credit card login) Once someone can monitor your wifi traffic you have problems.
To combat this many people are buying ‘private VPN’ subscriptions. Companies like Avast sell vpn services through apps on your phone and they can range from free to several dollars a month. Generally you get what you pay for. To understand what’s going on with a vpn app think about your traffic (emails, credit card apps, video chats, ect… ) being totally scrambled between your phone and a server somewhere on the internet like Atlanta or Chicago, after it gets there it goes out on the internet as normal traffic. This lets you ‘hop’ over anyone that is in your general network area and keep them from being able to grab traffic and decipher it. It is important to remember this security is NOT absolute. Someone could still catch traffic as you come out of the server in Atlanta or Chicago but there will be so much traffic and because some other security measures kick in there would be a very small chance someone could intercept anything useful.
The other option would be to get a prepaid phone that’s cheap. Forward your calls and don’t take your nice phone with you.
If you decide to take your phone you should definitely avoid wifi if you’ve got coverage and your carrier isn’t going to break your wallet on roaming charges. Ask them about roaming before you go. If it’s more than you want to spend you’ll want to turn your data off on your phone. This is a simple button on the top of an android or one of the first preferences in an Apple device.
If you decide to use wifi, keep it off until you’re ready to use it. When you go to use it turn on your VPN as soon as attach to the wireless. Leave the vpn on and don’t turn it off. Also look on your phone and make sure it’s not set to attach to unsecured wifi automatically.
Charging your phone – It’s very important that you use your own cable and power supply to charge your phone. There are multiple devices both cable and power supplies that are designed to hack your phone using circuitry embedded in either the cable or the power supply. Charge with your own cable/battery!
With a little bit of care and sense you should do just fine. Remember your phone can be worth a lot of money to thieves. Don’t leave it lying anywhere even for a minute.