Which of the following is a BEST practice when traveling internationally with laptops containing Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?

Using a thumb drive on a foreign computer introduces significant malware and data exfiltration risks, as foreign systems may be compromised or intentionally set up to capture data from inserted media.

The principle of data minimization dictates that you should only carry information strictly necessary for the trip. Leaving unnecessary PII behind eliminates the risk of that data being exposed through device theft, border searches, or foreign surveillance, which is a foundational best practice in travel security policies from organizations like NIST and DHS.

Hotel Wi-Fi and public internet cafes are considered high-risk, untrusted networks that are frequent targets for man-in-the-middle attacks, making them unsuitable for handling PII.

Allowing foreign contacts or unknown parties to scan your laptop introduces a potential attack vector, as scanning tools or physical access could be used to install malware or exfiltrate data from the device.