American academic freedom and the advanced research and development (R&D) conducted at academic institutions have resulted in progress in innumerable areas. We offer some considerations to help protect your students and your R&D from being stolen by other researchers, or used by hostile foreign governments and/or their military agencies:
- Prior to your travel, be sure to visit https://travel.state.gov or https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook to obtain country background, updated travel advisories, and the current political situation of the countries being visited;
- Do not travel with any unnecessary information or current research on a computing device;
- Avoid placing Internet addresses (“favorites”) on any devices you take. Take only that info which you will present or discuss at the conference;
- Do not leave your computing devices unattended;
- Make sure your computing devices are password protected;
- Enable native OS encryption (BitLocker for Windows and FileVault for macOS) and ensure you shut down your system completely after each use;
- Do not continue to use a device that begins to run slowly or acts strangely after taking it overseas. Have the system professionally analyzed for viruses or spyware before and after travel. Recognize that your personal belongings may be searched several times; and
- Be aware of unsolicited requests sent to you on the Internet, persons asking questions about your research, and persons requesting your opinion as to the status of others’ research being conducted at the academic institution. Information about failures in research can be as valuable as successes. Be careful in discussing any research that is not your own.
IT Help Central also has the following equipment available for checkout for foreign travel, for faculty and staff, complete with power adapters/converters:
- AT&T mobile hotspot
- iPad Air
- Dell Latitude laptops
- MacBook Air 13” laptops
If at all possible, we recommend that you leave personal equipment at home and reserve one of our devices for your foreign travel. For more information, please visit https://www.depts.ttu.edu/ithelpcentral or call (806) 742-4357 (HELP).
