Security underway

Whether in the subway to Garching, on a business trip to Singapore or heading home after work, notebooks, tablets and smartphones that provide us around-the-clock access to our emails and data increasingly serve as our travel companions. As much as we appreciate the convenience it offers, mobility also harbors risks:

• A smartphone quickly falls out of the pocket or a notebook is left in a subway train.
• Have you ever glanced at your neighbor's smartphone or notebook in the subway out of curiosity? Then you have already performed shoulder surfing! You can just as easily become a victim of shoulder surfing as you finish the last details of your scientific paper.
• Most people are not aware that notebooks left in hotel rooms can be a source of information leaks. Hotel room privacy is not observed everywhere around the world. The following pages offer valuable tips that you should keep in mind if you are travelling with mobile devices, regardless if you are commuting to/from work, travelling on business or sitting in a cafe during lunch connected to a public WiFi network. We also have a few tips for overseas travel.

With this in mind, we have put together several tips on the following pages for anyone who wants or needs access to data and emails while underway.