I am headed to Paris in May for two river cruises. Of course, like most travelers, I’ll take steps to alleviate the worries and hassles that can accompany a trip gone awry.
Travel insurance should cover lost or delayed luggage, trip delays and the like. I’ll do my best to be careful and to not take any unnecessary risks, but should I have an accident, there’s trip insurance.
But what about that device that I carry with me? My iPhone contains a lot of sensitive data, as I am sure your mobile devices do. What would you do if your phone were lost or stolen? Could you protect your data? Would it delay your getting home?
Several years ago my backpack was stolen in France. The backpack contained my passport, cash and an iPad. It was a hassle to get a new passport, which took several days, but luckily I could erase the iPad from my iPhone. The cash? I’m sure someone had a good time spending it.
What precautions do I take now? I safeguard my passport, and I have photos of it just in case it is stolen. I carry very little cash, opting to use charge cards instead. In fact, in France, I mostly use Apple Pay from my phone.
My phone, however, is the weak link. An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Turn On This New iPhone Setting to Protect Your Money and Photos” says that a thief who has stolen your phone and passcode can:
- Change the password to your Apple ID so you can’t get back in
- Disable Find My iPhone
- Access stored passwords in Apple’s iCloud Keychain, including those to bank and money apps
- Enable a recovery key, an Apple security setting that could lock you out of your Apple account—possibly forever
- Erase everything on the device to sell it
The Journal interviewed a thief who revealed how easy it was to steal a phone and passcode, creating havoc for his victims.
Apple has come up with some measures to thwart thieves. The first is called Apple Stolen Device Protection. Rather than explain it, I’m providing a link so that you can determine if it’s right for you.
I can only speak from my experience about how I plan to protect my iPhone. Here are the steps I’ve taken.
- Activated Apple Device Protection.
- Used an Alphanumeric Passcode, which is harder to crack.
- Activated two-factor authentication. I use Yubikey as part of my authentication strategy. It requires a physical USB key to be inserted into the phone to access certain data.
- Learned what to do If your iPhone or iPad is lost or stolen
- Lastly I have removed as much sensitive data as possible from my devices. If sensitive data needs to go with me, I carry that on an encrypted USB that erases all data for multiple failed attempts at breaking the USB’s keypad code.
- I keep backups of data in my safe-deposit box.
I’ll be writing more about this in the coming weeks, but for now, I am curious, what are your strategies for protecting yourself while traveling abroad? Let me know in the comments below.
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