Safe Computing on the Road

I've written around a dozen books about computer security and keeping your computer protected from the bad guys. But when I travel, I still need to remember the simple steps that can make computing safe and productive while on the road.

Business travelers are easy targets for computer bugs, known as malware, as they can hop on unprotected networks around the world. So let's look at five of the 10 most important things you need to do to make sure you don't bring home more than you expected from your business trip -- like a computer virus or spyware.

At the Davos conference in January, Internet guru and Google (GOOG Quote) vice president Vint Cerf estimated that at least one-fourth of the 600 million computers connected to the Internet -- about 150 million machines -- are infected with some type of malware. That adds up to a lot of exposed personal and business data.

So how can you keep your information safe?

Step One: The Policy

...