Secure and Connected, But Not Consumed: Top 5 Tech Tips for Vacation

While disconnecting completely from work during summer vacation is a great goal, for many small business owners and employees, it’s not always realistic. Even when you’re relaxing at the lake or heading to the beach with your family, work responsibilities have a way of following you. That doesn’t mean your vacation has to turn into a work trip — it just means you need smart boundaries and secure tech practices to keep you connected without being consumed.

Here are five practical and secure ways to stay connected to work while still enjoying your well-earned summer break—with a focus on maintaining your cybersecurity posture along the way.

1. Use a VPN When Connecting from Public Wi-Fi

Summer travel means airports, hotels, and coffee shops—along with public Wi-Fi networks that are notoriously insecure. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) encrypts your internet traffic, preventing prying eyes from snooping on sensitive work data.

Real-World Example: Cybercriminals can set up fake Wi-Fi networks that mimic legitimate ones, known as “evil twin” attacks. These malicious networks trick users into connecting, allowing hackers to capture any data transmitted over the network. (1)

Vacation Tip: Before leaving, make sure your devices are set up to automatically connect through a reputable VPN such as Forticlient whenever you’re on an unsecured network.

2. Separate Personal and Work Devices

Using the same device for work and personal activities on vacation opens you up to greater security risk. A simple social media click or a game download could become a pathway for malware that impacts your work systems. For best practice, stick to using a dedicated, secured work device when checking email or logging into cloud services. If that’s not possible, create separate user profiles for work and personal tasks to limit cross-contamination.

Real-World Example: IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report revealed that the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.88 million, a 10% increase over the previous year, highlighting the financial impact of security incidents. (2)

Vacation Tip: Bring a separate work laptop or tablet with you if you anticipate needing to check in periodically. This separation protects your personal data and your business.

3. Turn Off Notifications—But Set an Emergency Alert System

You don’t need to be glued to your screen. One smart way to stay loosely connected is to turn off non-critical work notifications while enabling alerts for real emergencies.

Set up filtered email rules or Teams/Slack statuses that automatically notify colleagues when you’re away and redirect urgent issues to a designated person. Use Do Not Disturb mode and allow only specific contacts to bypass it.

Vacation Tip: Tools like Microsoft Outlook and Google Workspace offer rules that filter and prioritize important communications. Combine these with status updates to inform coworkers that you’ll check messages only at specific times.

Real-world Example: Harvard Business Review highlighted that the burnout resulting from never quite feeling unplugged has become a major drain on workers and businesses, reducing employee well-being and productivity. (3)

4. Enable Multifactor Authentication (MFA) on All Accounts

If you’re only checking in occasionally while away, the last thing you want is a hacked account ruining your vacation. Make sure MFA is turned on for all cloud services and business platforms. This ensures that even if your password is compromised, attackers won’t easily gain access.

Vacation Tip: Use an app-based MFA tool like Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator. These are more secure than SMS-based codes, which can be intercepted if your phone is compromised.

Real-world Example: The FBI and CISA have issued warnings about heightened risks of business email compromise (BEC) attacks during holiday seasons, emphasizing the importance of prompt reporting and preventive measures like MFA. (4)

5. Use Secure Cloud Tools, Not Local Files

If you must access work materials, make sure they’re stored in a secure cloud environment like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Dropbox Business. This reduces the risk of data loss or corruption, and you won’t have to worry about leaving sensitive files on your device if it’s lost or stolen.

Vacation Tip: Before your trip, sync only the essential files you may need offline using tools like OneDrive or Google Drive’s offline mode. This way, you stay prepared without compromising your entire file system.

Best Practice: Set up file access controls and audit logs before you travel so you can monitor if anything unusual occurs while you’re away.

Enjoy your break—you’ve earned it! Just make sure your cybersecurity is on vacation watch, too.

Dynamic Edge Can Help

Since 1999, Dynamic Edge has helped hundreds of small and mid-sized businesses maximize the return on their technology investment. Our graphic designers create effective websites that power our small business clients. Contact us today for a free network assessment, so that we may help you implement cost-effective security solutions to keep your organization and its clients safe and productive.Our Help Desk features friendly, experienced engineers who answer calls live and solve more than 70% of issues on the first call.