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One tactic an international traveler can use is to buy a cheap second laptop, store the data they need in the cloud, and then access it once they get to the destination. They can then wipe the data before getting back on the plane for the return flight.

If that sounds too expensive or inconvenient, you can instead encrypt your laptop's hard drive. Full-disk encryption renders all of your devices software and data unreadable unless you enter a passphrase, which activates a key that unscrambles your files and gets your laptop up and running.

Simply setting a screen lock on your laptop offers a much weaker level of protection, one that can be circumvented by hackers. They can bypass the password by restarting the device with a different operating system on a USB stick, or simply by removing the hard drive from the device.

Once set, full-disk encryption works automatically, and any new data you save on your laptop will also be protected. And if someone physically removes the hard drive, it will be unreadable.

Full disk encryption is a sound practice, and not just for airline travel, Grossman says. It helps with any circumstance where the laptop is not physically well-protected, like in hotel rooms or in the trunk of a vehicle while youre at dinner after work."

Directions for encrypting both MacBook and Windows laptops are below. With either kind of computer, security pros warn users to use strong passwords. They say its best to take the human element out of choosing a passphrase as much as possible.

It's critical that the encryption password be randomly generated and not chosen by a human, says Joseph Bonneau, a post-doctoral researcher in the Applied Cryptography Group at Stanford University. He recommends that you use a minimum of six random words from a list such as one of several developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That organization has directions for a low-tech, random way to generateyour passphrase. Essentially, though, the more words you use, the better.

Be sure to plan ahead. Depending on how much data you have stored, encrypting a laptop could take a few hours. So this isn't something you can do while waiting on the TSA line at the airport.

And finally, before checking your laptop with your luggage, youll want to power it down completely. Any time you work on your laptop, the hard drive is decryptedotherwise, you wouldn't be able to do anything. Simply putting your device in sleep mode will leave the hard drive decrypted. Shut it down properly and the hard drive will be protected again.

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Flying to Europe? You Might Want to Encrypt Your Laptop First - ConsumerReports.org