Taking and using your mobile devices when you travel internationally exposes you to particular hazards.
In many countries, privacy protections (if they exist) are most often weakest at airports.
To gain transit through or gain entry to a country, you probably need to submit to searches of your person and devices.
While most of these searches are perfunctory, other searches can be rather intrusive.
Additionally, some countries have significantly higher criminal activity than your originating country.
What can you do to minimize the risks?
Research the countries you are traveling to (and through) to understand their privacy protections, security/inspection measures, and criminal activity concerns.
The last thing you want to do is get surprised along the way.
Consider minimizing the devices (or the sensitive data) you bring with you.
If you don’t need it for what you intend to do, it is probably best to avoid bringing it with you.
If you need to use a phone to communicate, but you don’t want to risk much of your personal information, then using an alternate phone or wiping your phone may be something you’ll want to do.
Use thin clients (if your organization allows/supports them).
A thin client doesn’t allow/enable storing information on them; therefore, the risk associated with losing or allowing someone to inspect the device is less than with conventional devices.
Again, using a VPN connection to secure your network traffic.
It is safe to assume that all traffic is being sniffed by countries and criminal operations while traveling abroad.
Encrypting all your communications is an essential security measure.
Whenever possible, do not leave your devices unattended.
If an adversary has physical access to your devices, they could tamper with them to compromise their security.
Some attacks are at the hardware-level and are invisible to your system’s security measures.
Seek assistance from your organization’s security personnel before traveling.
They might be able to identify any particular threats and help you mitigate them.
Update your devices before traveling.
Two reasons for this.
First, it makes sure that your devices are protected against any vulnerabilities that its vendors have fixed before your departure.
Second, it will minimize your need to update while you are using potentially hostile networks.
Some known attacks leverage software updates to compromise devices.
While this can be attempted anywhere, updating while traveling makes you particularly vulnerable.