Answering emails or reviewing documents when travelling is a big time saver, but also a great risk if you don't take proper care of information security.
Many seemingly typical and harmless situations can be a major temptation for those with unholy intentions. If you are working while traveling (for instance on a train, bus or plane), always keep in the back of your mind that:
- leaving a laptop (even a locked one) unattended, such as on a train for a visit to a restaurant car or bathroom, is recklessness that may end in the loss of the equipment, and thus - the personal data on it,
- having business-related conversations in the presence of by-travellers is like showing them a fair amount of trust that they will not use the information overheard to your or your organisation's detriment,
- connecting to an unsecured public Wi-Fi network is an opportunity to a third party for an insight into the contents of your PC, disk resources and passwords,
- an unprotected screen, at an inappropriate angle or unprotected with a special privacy filter, is like an invitation to take a peek at what you are currently working on,
- leaving documents with personal data on them or unsecured (unencrypted) flash drives on a plane, bus or train in all likelihood results in the permanent loss of such data and the risk of unauthorised use.
Regardless of your destination and the transport means you choose, remember that GDPR applies not only at your employer's offices and workstation, but also wherever you are carrying personal data of customers, contractors or co-workers.
Any of the situations described above - if occurred - would most often be an event that may tantamount to a data breach, which you should immediately report to your supervisor or the data protection officer.