Why would they want to spy on me?
I'm just a student; an admin assistant, a teacher, a bartender, an influencer.
I'm just going on vacation, to visit family/friends, to volunteer, to a music festival.
I’ve been traveling for years, I got this!
I'm not traveling to a dangerous place. It's just the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Austria…
As we've seen from recent years, even the most seemingly safe places can quickly take a turn for the worse when undesirable events unfold. Nearly every undesirable event that could permanently influence the rest of a traveler's life falls into one of the primary categories of threats and hazards – criminal, terrorism, geopolitical & civil unrest, privacy, health, and environmental.
While most health and environmental hazards are natural events of chance, threats normally have a human element – they are perpetrated by individuals, organizations … adversaries. And who are these adversaries? How do you know if they're an adversary? Unfortunately, anyone can be one. By definition, an adversary is an organization or person that plans to cause injury, damage, or loss. Criminal organizations (thieves, traffickers, scammers, hackers), government & foreign state actors, terrorist organizations, activist organizations, business competitors, even individual opportunists. Anyone can be an adversary and can spy on a traveler anywhere, any place, at any time if spying on that traveler will help them get closer to their goals.
But just because an organization or person can cause injury, damage, or loss for a traveler, doesn’t mean they will. To pose a threat to a traveler, an adversary needs to have the intention to target a traveler, a history of successful attacks against travelers, and most importantly, the capability to act as a potential threat to travelers. Elicitation, covert entry, surveillance & eavesdropping, requests & questioning, and cyber interception & monitoring are the most well known and highly effective capabilities adversaries could use.
Elicitation
A seemingly harmless conversation that allows an adversary to get information from a traveler without the traveler even knowing it's happening.
Why is it used?
Since it’s just “having a harmless conversation,” it’s pretty easy to deny & brush off as normal social interaction, which you would expect to have while traveling and exploring. Plus, when done right, an adversary gets you to let down your guard and makes you feel comfortable talking about anything.
Covert Entry
The stealthy effort to search a traveler’s luggage and/or lodging to gain access to valuables and significant information that could provide key insights into a traveler's life not available anywhere else.
Why is it used?
When at home, we expect that our valuables and significant information are private & safe so long as we lock our doors — and U.S. laws “prevent” search & seizure without probable cause. However, those same precautions don’t always follow us to other countries, and the limited control of our environment in another country makes our valuables and significant information more vulnerable to theft and/or manipulation.
Surveillance & Eavesdropping
Obviously or clandestinely following a traveler to monitor and record their actions, and/or listening to their private conversations with the intent to use information discovered to aid in an adversary’s attempts to acquire a traveler’s valuables and significant information.
Why is it used?
With the rise of social media and influencer culture encouraging everyone to share every moment of life, the ability to purchase with same-day delivery microphones, cameras, and tracking devices, including devices already hidden in everyday items like pens, sunglasses, etc, or items that can be hidden in anything from cars to bags to shoe soles, it has become too easy for anyone at anytime to surveil and eavesdrop on whomever they want and get information about a travelers personalities, behaviors, and routines. Combined with data collected through other capabilities, an adversary can start to put it all into context and create a plan to take advantage of a traveler.
Requests & Questioning
The act of establishing or using an already established relationship, such as a colleague, classmate, friendship, business partnership, research collaborator or some other situationship to seek information, money, access or other answers to questions only the traveler can give.
Why is it used?
Requests and questioning is all about manipulating relationships that were established for seemingly mutual reasons, in an effort to gain information or access. It is about working on hidden agendas while maintaining the appearance of working toward the same goal. And now that AI digital voices have entered the picture, travelers can be tricked into fulfilling requests and answering questions from a trusted colleague or friend when in actuality, it is an adversary.
Cyber Interception & Monitoring
Adversaries use cyber interception and monitoring techniques to introduce malicious programming that could track, steal, and/or corrupt a traveler’s valuables and significant information.
Why is it used?
High return of investment. Unlimited potential. Adversaries can access vast amounts of information from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. Then it’s stolen or manipulated so quickly, damage could be done before a traveler realizes there was even a problem. The information might be used immediately to cause injury, damage, or loss, or it might be used to craft more tailored plans for elicitation, covert entry, or requesting & questioning.
Many of these activities may look familiar. You may have seen any or all of them in one of your favorite movies – or on social media this morning! The truth is, no matter what an adversary is after, or who the adversary is, they all use the same techniques. Technological advancements have allowed adversaries to be more strategic and specific with their targeting, using these techniques for a variety of purposes ranging from national security to a litany of illegal activities. Being familiar with their existence, who uses them, what they're used to target, and how they're implemented can help you better identify when and if something is wrong and the best way to react.
So how can you at least better protect your valuables and significant information while traveling and increase your travel safety & security?
Pack items that don't draw unwanted attention and don't exhibit details that can be used to trick you into saying or doing something unintentionally.
Clear out/sanitize bags, wallets, luggage, etc. of anything you don’t need or won’t use while traveling. Make copies of everything else in case the originals are stolen or lost. Limit what valuables you take.
Don’t expect any privacy! Avoid speaking of or doing things in public that you wouldn’t want too many people know about, or to be recorded.
Determine what you're comfortable and/or authorized to talk about before you depart home, and never feel obligated or guilted into answering awkward questions.
Ensure your electronic devices are prepped with all available security & encryption measures and software updates.
Have you experienced any of these tricks by an adversary during your travels abroad? What did you do?
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