Traveling can be stressful, but even more so during the holiday season. AAA projects that the number of year-end holiday travelers in the U.S. will top 100 million for the first time on record. Nearly one in three Americans will travel this holiday season and more than 100.5 million are expected to travel than 50 miles or more from home.

Avast mobile apps help protect your smartphone when you are traveling

The one thing you really want to make sure you protect while you travel is your smartphone. Not only may you have your boarding pass on your smartphone, but more importantly, the hardware is expensive and it most likely contains a plethora of personal data.

There are two main ways your phone could be compromised while traveling, especially during the holidays: physical device loss and network threats.

Have an anti-theft app installed

Airports and train stations will be bustling with people, you may have to dash to catch a flight or make a pit stop during a long car ride. In all of these situations, your phone is at risk –physical risk. Pickpockets prefer to work in high density areas, and it’s easy to lose things like your phone when you’re in a rush.

If you lose your phone, Avast Anti-Theft can help protect your data and help you find your phone.

With Anti-Theft, you can accomplish the following:

• Remotely locate your phone on a map via GPS, Wi-Fi or mobile network
• Remotely lock your phone
• Be notified about a SIM card change — the new number and GPS location will be sent to your pre-selected friend
• Remotely activate an alarm
• Remotely wipe your phone
• Remotely lock your phone’s settings app

Use a VPN when connecting to public Wi-Fi

Besides physical loss, your smartphone can be compromised when using public Wi-Fi. Using software that is readily available on the Internet, anyone can snoop on Wi-Fi traffic if they are connected to the same network as you are. This means they can see the websites you visit and, in some cases, even capture login information, which is why it is vital to use a VPN. VPN stands for virtual private network and serves as a private tunnel that encrypts your data while connected to open Wi-Fi and, thus, protects your data from being intercepted and read.

Avast SecureLine VPN is a great, affordable, one-click VPN. In addition to protecting your data, you can also choose which of the many Avast servers located around the world that you want to connect through. This allows you to circumvent geo-restrictions, so you can view content from your home country while traveling abroad.

Happy holidays and safe travels from Avast!

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