# Travelling Security



## HalfEatenPie (Aug 17, 2014)

So...  I'm doing a bit of travelling again!  I'm reporting live from an open WiFi access point in a hotel room!  Woo hoo!  I'm currently using a VPN and all that jazz at the moment to encrypt my traffic and hopefully not have anyone sniffing my packets, but what else is there to protecting your important credentials?


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## sundaymouse (Aug 17, 2014)

Don't travel.


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## KuJoe (Aug 17, 2014)

I use a Live CD while traveling. Sometimes I mirror my hard drive to a USB drive and leave my laptop drive at home but that's mostly in case of theft and only if I'm not traveling for business.


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## splitice (Aug 17, 2014)

My laptop is encrypted in case of theft.

Usually I utilize 3/4g mobile data so WiFi sniffing is not a concern.


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## KuJoe (Aug 17, 2014)

splitice said:


> My laptop is encrypted in case of theft.
> 
> Usually I utilize 3/4g mobile data so WiFi sniffing is not a concern.


Encryption is nice to secure your data (I encrypt my USB drives), but I like being able to drop my hard drive into another machine and be up and running. If my laptop is stolen, I can get another one and put my drive into it without having to wait for an OS load, re-configuring everything to my needs, or installing all of my apps over again.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Aug 17, 2014)

I'm with KuJoe on that one.  Outside of my house, I tend to use removable media.  My netbook doesn't use a drive at all - I just clone/deploy a new SD card when working away from home.


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## KuJoe (Aug 17, 2014)

I have a VM that I use more and more these days so as long as my laptop or netbook can connect to a VPN and has an RDP/VNC application on it then I'm good.


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## Alex U (Aug 18, 2014)

A little unrelated, I heard that the TSA in the US is bad?  e.g stealing phones, money, iPads etc.  Has anyone had this happen?


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## KuJoe (Aug 18, 2014)

Alex U said:


> A little unrelated, I heard that the TSA in the US is bad?  e.g stealing phones, money, iPads etc.  Has anyone had this happen?


I've flown 4 times in the past year and haven't had any bad experiences.


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## SGC-Hosting (Aug 18, 2014)

After having my laptop destroyed while traveling years ago, I started to just carry a beater laptop and use VPN along with RDP or teamviewer to just use my desktop at home.  I usually also get a cheap data plan for my iphone to use as a hot spot when hotel/hostel wifi is painfully slow/unreliable or nonexistent.

The best part about colocation and partnering with almost all of the datacenters I use, is that I work in a virtual office, so I can spend almost all of my time traveling  and no worries about hardware!  Had some memory go bad on one of my shared servers a few years ago during my flight from New York to Paris and it was repaired by the folks at the datacenter before I landed!


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## MannDude (Aug 20, 2014)

Alex U said:


> A little unrelated, I heard that the TSA in the US is bad?  e.g stealing phones, money, iPads etc.  Has anyone had this happen?


Hardly. They usually seem half asleep / bored / not paying attention most the time. Besides, things like phones, laptops, and stuff like that would be pretty easy to determine who stole it.

If you had it before security, but didn't have it _after_ security... chance are, security took it. What gate did you enter? What time did you go through it? Must have been of these ten workers on the clock at that time in this section. I would imagine that with the level of surveillance at these areas that they're (hopefully) not stupid enough to try to steal from people.

Granted, I've been pulled aside for search only to be passed through _without_ search and I've also been traveling with people who brought their own food (from home) on board in rubbermaid containers, including like a quart of home made spicy sauce and TSA didn't give two shits or even care to look at it.

Also there may be a funny story about Miller and I going through US customs when flying back into the USA where I set off the alarm because I did not remove my belt or watch, and was just waived through (even though I asked if I should remove them and go back through the machine), and Miller being about 4 people in line behind me got pulled aside and all his luggage searched... haha. Took him like 40 minutes to finally come through and meet me on the America side. They wanted to question him about the cigars in his luggage (NOT carry on, the bag that was checked in when arriving at the airport) but the cigars I had in a plastic grocery bag that went through xray, after I set off the metal detector alarm..... not an issue. Didn't have to remove my belt or watch, was just told to go through. <shrugs>

Worst I've had was them tell me to finish my drink before I boarded, but generally they don't care. They're lazy and inconsistent in enforcing their ever changing rules. I think I just get lucky. I'm the guy who goes first in the new line when they split up a long line.

But back on topic, for travel security? Honestly, relatively light compared to others. I just connect to a VPN if at the airport, in a hotel or using wifi anywhere outside of my home. I don't keep anything very important or revealing on my laptop, so in the event it was stolen damage would be minimal. If confiscated, nothing of great importance on it. In regards to data, I travel light. In regards to actual luggage... I pack too much.


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## AshleyUK (Aug 20, 2014)

I normally just connect to a VPN if I am connect to an open WIFI, however if it is someone I know and using their WIFI belongs I am just generally browsing then I would stay off the VPN. However if doing anything security/business related I would jump on the VPN.

I think a VPN is becoming more of a standard thing in todays world of free open WIFI pretty much anywhere in main citys, where I work in London you can connect to free open wifi across the whole "square mile".


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## SPINIKR-RO (Aug 20, 2014)

I use a VPN and whole encryption. With truecrypt I use the option to change the boot message. If someone powers on its a black screen (awaiting password enter) and a message with my phone number and reward.

I use a Yubikey unique to device which is always on me attached to keys, when the Yubikey enters a 100 or so char password I add on a phrase to the end of it which completes the password.

I generally dont carry any removable media, most of my laptop habits mainly involve web browsing. If I do have a file while away I just save it to the Google Drive folder, if the laptop gets lost or stolen then the files wont be.

Theres a few other layers of security but thats sort of my usual process.


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## wlanboy (Aug 25, 2014)

Alex U said:


> A little unrelated, I heard that the TSA in the US is bad?  e.g stealing phones, money, iPads etc.  Has anyone had this happen?


Then don't try to fly to Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Turkey or Russia for business trips.

For long travels I do have a ThinkPad X121e.

Encrypted home folder and all data (copy) encrypted stored on an USB 3 stick.

I like the idea that I just have to buy that cheap notebook again and dd the image back to the harddrive to have all software in place.

My laptop will be replaced by a Lenovo Yoga 2 soon (*™*).

I am using a vpn from one of my vps for all external connections that I do not trust.


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## TekStorm - Walter (Aug 28, 2014)

What i use for security is VPN, but I use it everyone, that way i know my info is secure.


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