Hi everyone, hope you’ve all enjoyed the week so far. I am quite glad it’s Friday because tomorrow is the one weekend in almost 3 months I have nothing scheduled in for!
I’m coming to you today with a quick blog about security when travelling. Many of us bloggers like to type on the go, sit in coffee shops and go up and down from London regularly for meetings which for me means about 2/3 hours spare on the train where I can whip out my laptop and get typing, editing or emailing.
Something no one really thinks about, talks about or says anything about is keeping security conscious when travelling and more often than not there is someone behind you, next to you or walking past who could catch a glimpse of your laptop and personal details.
Without going into details, I am sat behind a lady who after seeing her laptop and very large unmissable text for the last half an hour have learnt she is CEO of a large company, how much money she has in her personal account, who her colleagues are and also found out a very personal issue going on inside the company alongside her battle with health… It was all incredibly difficult to miss and not read unless I purposely looked away with my eyes closed, leading me to think how stupid she was not having a privacy screen (bit of dark plastic you can buy for pennies) and why her company hadn’t considered this as she was travelling so often!
Whilst I would do absolutely nothing with this information, and probably forget it in the next 20 minutes, I am sad to say there are people out there who would be happy to steal it and use it. We are all guilty of glancing at each other’s phones etc and it’s hard to miss when a huge light with text and images is put right in our eye line, so should we do more to protect ourselves when working in public?
I think we should and it’s not just a case of stolen identity, fraud or security but privacy. We shouldn’t be freely offering up our information / new blog posts to others so here are a few steps I’ve come up with to ensure you’re being safe and secure when working in public…
- Check your surroundings – is anyone noticing your laptop and phone?
- Try to sit with your back to a wall facing out.
- Use a privacy screen from 3M.
- Dim the light on your laptop / phone to remove attention from yourself.
- Don’t open banking apps where people can see your card details!
- Try not to respond to sensitive emails when people can see you.
- Don’t login to unknown WiFi points! You’d be surprise how many people try…
- Tilt your phone or laptop to face only you, not people to the sides of you.
- Don’t take personal calls, it’s annoying for others but also a security risk!
- Use headphones and only work on urgent materials if in an unsecured location.
Whilst these are my suggestions and not 100% foolproof at all, they will help prevent identity fraud and keep your personal information safe from strangers around you.
I hope this information is helpful to everyone, not just bloggers and cafe offices, but people working on trains / planes / boats and buses!
Any questions please don’t hesitate to ask, I’ll do a section on my Instagram story about this later this evening also.
Love,
Lucy x
Her Country Living 