Interview with Fabien Soulis, Oppidum Security

When travelling, new intrusion vectors emerge

How are business travellers' data more exposed?

Fabien Soulis - Outside their company, employees are more exposed to cyber security risks. On the one hand because, no longer protected by the firewalls of its business, its defences are diminished, and secondly because the unusual attacks can arise. When travelling new vectors of intrusion In addition, it is important to bear in mind that, during an international business trip, your mobile phone or any other communication device contains and transmits your personal data. During an international business trip, you should therefore bear in mind that your mobile phone or any other communication device contains and transmits your personal datawhich are often more precious than a traveller's suitcase. Thieves often target travellers, for example in their hotel rooms during meal times.

What recommendations do you have ahead of the trip?

Fabien Soulis - The first measure to take is valid everywhere and at all times, but it is even more relevant before you leave on your trip: operating systems such as applications and antivirus must be updated for correct the faults that publishers have detected and that could be exploited by hackers to take control of a computer and mobile phone remotely. As far as the data is concerned, I advise you to save in advance on an external hard drive or in the cloud, and encrypt those on your hard disk using, for example, Bitlocker for Windows or FileVault for Mac. It's also a good idea to disable automatic connections to Bluetooth and WiFi networkssystem, as well as the geolocation social networks.

And what about during the trip?

Fabien Soulis - If you connect to free WiFi, you should avoid consulting important sites such as your bank or your email inbox. It's better to use a VPN connection to keep communications confidential. The use of self-service computers should be limited to the simple consultation of websites, as these PCs are not reliable and can be infected by malware. keyloggers. Charging a phone at a USB terminal, in an airport for example, is also risky. If travellers are forced to do so, they must switch off their phone before connecting it to the terminal.