Travelling Overseas with
Electronic Devices
(Technical Guidance)
DECEMBER 2012
Introduction
This publication has been developed to assist IT security staff to secure electronic devices and information before
employees travel overseas. It should be read in conjunction with the guidance in the Travelling Overseas with
Electronic Devices (User Guidance) publication available from the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) website.
For devices carrying classified information, the Australian Government Information Security Manual (ISM) contains
further guidance.
Mitigation strategies
The following mitigation strategies should be implemented before employees travel overseas in order to maximise the
security of devices and the information held on them. This is general guidance which may not be applicable to every
device.
Update the operating system and all applications on devices. Most updates are fixes for identified security
vulnerabilities and should be applied as soon as they become available.
Restrict administrative privileges on devices to only users who need them. Restrict user’s rights in order to permit
them to only execute a specific set of predefined functions as required to complete their duties.
Implement application whitelisting on devices, such as Microsoft AppLocker, to only allow approved programs to
run. For tablets and smartphones, use Mobile Application Management tools to specify which applications are
allowed to be run.
Install antivirus software on devices. Virus pattern signatures should be checked for updates several times per day
and installed as soon as they become available. All storage should be regularly scanned for malicious code.
Where possible, install a firewall to protect against malicious incoming network traffic.
Disable unnecessary features or software; minimising software on devices reduces opportunities to gain access to
devices through software-based security vulnerabilities.
Implement passphrase policies as per the ISM or device‐specific hardening guides.
Device encryption
All devices should be encrypted to mitigate the risk of unauthorised access to information if a device is lost or stolen. In
doing so, organisations should use either full disk encryption or partial disk encryption where access controls will only
allow writing to encrypted partitions.
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Full disk encryption provides a greater level of protection than file based encryption. While file based encryption may
protect individual files there is a risk that unencrypted copies of the file may be left in temporary locations used by the
operating system. Full disk encryption also allows operating system and software files to be more easily protected from
an adversary with physical access.
Network connections
Configure wireless security settings on devices such that they can’t connect to ad‐hoc wireless networks. Further,
configure devices such that split tunnelling is disabled when users connect back to the organisation via a Virtual Private
Network (VPN) to browser the Web or access their emails. Finally, disable Bluetooth pairing by default. This can be
enabled if required but should be done prior to the departure of employees on overseas travel.
Further information
The Australian Government Information Security Manual (ISM) assists in the protection of information that is
processed, stored or communicated by organisations’ systems. This publication can be found at
https://www.acsc.gov.au/infosec/ism/.
The Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents complements the advice in the ISM. The complete list of
mitigation strategies and supporting publications can be found at
https://www.acsc.gov.au/infosec/mitigationstrategies.htm.
Additional platform-specific hardening guides are available on the Australian Cyber Security Centre website to assist
organisations in the secure configuration of devices. This guidance is available at
https://www.acsc.gov.au/publications/.
Contact details
Organisations or individuals with questions regarding this advice can contact the ACSC by emailing
asd.assist@defence.gov.au or calling 1300 CYBER1 (1300 292 371).
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