It’s officially summer! With warmer temperatures, longer days, and gatherings with family and friends on the horizon, it’s a time of year most of us look forward to. Besides all the fun summer brings, it also can mean more crowds, traffic, and delayed travel plans. Plus, with millions of Americans planning to travel this season — both by car and by plane — it’s important to make sure your technology is secure before leaving home. The last thing you want is to be stuck with a drained computer battery, spotty Wi-Fi connection, or worse, compromised data. Here are some summer tech tips.
With our IT expertise, we wanted to provide a few technology tips to help you stay secure this summer. We hope they help enhance your security posture, protect your devices, and boost efficiency while you’re on the road.
Limit Public Wi-Fi
The safest option is to avoid using untrusted Wi-Fi while you’re traveling. We understand that might be difficult, so at the very least, avoid accessing any applications or sites that contain personal information such as bank accounts, work emails, and shopping sites if you happen to be using unknown public networks.
Instead, we recommend using a Virtual Private Network (or VPN for short). This will allow you to establish a protected network connection while using public networks. VPNs work by encrypting your Wi-Fi and disguising your identity — making it more difficult for hackers to compromise your most important data and information.
Utilize Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an authentication method that requires you to provide two or more verification factors to use an online application, account, or a VPN. Rather than just entering your username and password, MFA prompts you to enter additional information, such as a PIN, a confirmation on your smartphone, or even a fingerprint. Considering usernames and passwords are vulnerable to hacks, enabling MFA adds an additional layer of security. It’s even shown to prevent 99.9% of hackers.
Update Your Devices and Back Up Your Data
Another great way to stay protected this summer is to ensure your devices are updated and secure. Routine updates keep your devices running smoothly by reducing errors and increasing efficiency. Installing additional security features such as anti-ransomware, anti-spam filtering, and email encryption are also excellent ways to stay protected while you’re traveling.
Backing up your data is another great strategy to implement. Not only does it protect your data in the event of a cyberattack, it also will get your devices back up and running in no time, ensuring little to no downtime for your business. While there are several different ways to back up your data, cloud backup is the most effective and secure — and easy to access when you’re working remotely.
Stay Productive (Or Not!)
Cloud-based applications such as Outlook, Teams, Slack, and Zoom allow teams to stay connected and productive no matter where you are. While these applications allow anyone to respond quickly and efficiently to any work issues that may arise, it can be difficult to truly “unplug.” That’s why we recommend setting your “Out of Office” message or setting your messages to “Do Not Disturb” this summer to truly unplug, unwind, and enjoy the outdoors.
Connect With Varsity
If you find yourself traveling this summer, keep your devices and data secure with the tech tips outlined here. If you’d prefer to have a helping hand when it comes to your IT, Varsity is here for you. Our trusted team of IT experts will always work diligently to meet your technology needs while planning for the future. Contact us to learn more about our IT services. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer!
