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I’ve packed for enough conferences and TDY trips that my travel security gear bag doesn’t change much between trips anymore. What has changed is my willingness to buy things out of anxiety instead of actual threat modeling. This list is the gear I actually use, why I use it, and — just as important — what I’ve stopped bothering with.

If you want the credential-side companion to this, I covered password manager travel protections in the 1Password review earlier this week, specifically Travel Mode for border crossings.

How I Actually Decide What Goes in the Bag

Before any travel security gear list, it’s worth naming the filter I run every purchase through, because it’s the same filter I’d apply to a control recommendation in a risk assessment: what’s the actual threat, what’s the actual cost of the mitigation, and does the mitigation cost less than living with the risk.

That filter kills a lot of “tactical” travel gear immediately. It’s also why the list below is shorter than most of the packing guides you’ll find — I’d rather tell you three things are worth buying and mean it than pad a list to fifteen items where half of them are theater.

The Honest Case for USB Data Blockers

Let’s start with the most misunderstood item on any travel security gear list: the USB data blocker, sometimes called a “USB condom.”

The FCC and FBI have both issued juice jacking warnings, the FCC’s dating back to 2019 and the FBI’s to 2023. Here’s the part that doesn’t get repeated as often: the FCC itself states there are no confirmed real-world instances of juice jacking as of 2024. I’m not aware of anything since that’s changed that.

So why do I still carry one? Not because I think every airport kiosk USB port is compromised. It’s because a data blocker costs about $7 and physically removes the data pins from the charging path — there is no scenario where it hurts you, and a small number of scenarios where it helps. That’s the entire pitch: cheap insurance against a low-probability, low-cost-to-mitigate risk, not a defense against an active epidemic. Don’t let anyone sell you the panic version of this story.

The PortaPow USB data blocker is the one I keep on my keyring — it uses a SmartCharge chip that preserves fast charging while the data pins simply aren’t connected. Since I inevitably lose or lend these, the PortaPow 2-pack is the better buy if you’re outfitting a bag and a laptop case separately.

Faraday Sleeves: When They’re Worth It

Faraday sleeves block cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, RFID, and NFC signals entirely — the device goes fully dark, not just “airplane mode” dark. I don’t use these daily. I use them specifically for border crossings, secondary inspection scenarios, and conferences where I’m not carrying my primary device at all.

For a laptop, the SLNT laptop sleeve fits in a normal bag without looking like tactical gear, which matters more than people admit when you’re going through a TSA line. For a phone, the SLNT leather 13-inch sleeve — sized for tablets and smaller laptops — is the one I actually reach for since it doubles as a normal-looking case.

Where I’d steer you away from a purchase: if your threat model is “I don’t want my phone tracked at a coffee shop,” airplane mode does that for free. Faraday gear earns its keep at border crossings and in specific high-sensitivity travel, not as an everyday-carry habit.

Webcam Covers: The Cheapest Item on This List

This one barely needs justification. A webcam cover is a physical control against a software failure — a compromised app, a misconfigured permission, a piece of malware with camera access — and it costs less than a coffee.

I keep CloudValley metal webcam covers on every laptop lid in the house, mine included — thin enough at 0.023 inches that the lid still closes flush. For a cheaper multi-device option, the Yilador 3-pack covers a laptop, a work badge camera, and a tablet for about the price of a fast-food meal.

This is genuinely a “no reason not to” item. Unlike faraday gear, there’s no scenario where a slide cover is overkill.

I’d also put this in the same bucket as locking your screen when you step away from a hotel business center terminal or a conference workstation. It’s a habit, not a purchase, but it belongs on the same mental checklist as the physical controls above — the cheapest security control is usually a behavior, not a product.

Privacy Screens: A Category Worth Knowing, No Pick Yet

Privacy screen filters — the kind that black out your laptop display outside a narrow viewing angle — are a legitimate control for anyone working in a conference hall, on a plane, or in a shared coworking space. I’m intentionally not recommending a specific model here; sizing is device-specific enough that a generic pick does more harm than good, and I haven’t tested one recently enough to vouch for a specific unit with confidence. Measure your exact laptop model before buying one, and treat this as a category to shop for on its own rather than a name-brand recommendation.

What I Skip

In the spirit of honesty over inventory-padding: I don’t carry a full faraday backpack for routine domestic travel. It’s real gear with a real use case, but for a standard TDY or conference trip within the country, it’s more bulk than the threat model justifies. Save it for higher-sensitivity travel.

I also don’t bother with RFID-blocking wallets for card-only use. Contactless card skimming at that range is a much smaller practical risk than the marketing around these products implies, and most payment cards already implement transaction-specific cryptograms that make cloned skims far less useful than the wallet ads suggest.

I’ll also flag Mission Darkness non-window faraday bags here, since they show up in a lot of travel security roundups. They’re solid — lab-tested shielding across the 10 MHz to 40 GHz range, priced under $50 — and worth knowing about if you’re comparison shopping the faraday category. I’m sticking with the SLNT gear above for my own kit mainly because that’s what I’ve used long enough to vouch for personally.

Building This Into a Full Travel Security Kit

None of this gear matters much if the network you connect to is the actual weak point. If you’re traveling for a conference or TDY, pair this kit with a travel router you control — see our GL.iNet Slate AX vs Beryl AX comparison for locking down hotel and conference Wi-Fi behind your own VPN tunnel rather than trusting the venue’s network directly.

And if you’re carrying sensitive files rather than just accounts, a FIPS-validated encrypted drive is worth the trip in your bag over cloud sync on unknown Wi-Fi — I go through the options in our hardware-encrypted drives roundup.

Bottom Line

Travel security gear works best as a small, deliberate kit, not an anxiety purchase list. Data blockers and webcam covers are cheap enough that skipping them saves you nothing meaningful. Faraday sleeves and privacy screens are situational — worth having, not worth obsessing over for routine travel. Buy for the actual trip in front of you, not for a worst-case scenario that the evidence doesn’t support.