As a security professional who travels a great deal for work, I can tell you a lot about the best practices to follow when you’re on the road with electronic devices in tow. Right now, though, I’m on vacation — I’m in paradise, as a matter of fact, in the form of the Garden Island of Kauai — so maybe I should be able to let down my guard.

Just about everyone around me seems to be doing it. Unlocked doors. Open cars. Beach bags that hold phones, money and identification left behind while their owners run over to greet a sea turtle. Both natives and tourists are pretty relaxed about such things.

I’m the stick in the mud who’s always grimacing at these sights and saying to my party, “Hey, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to leave that stuff sitting there unattended.” After working for years to develop a security-first mindset, you don’t shed it so simply when you’re in paradise. Besides, hard experience has taught me that, as wonderful a place as Hawaii is, it’s no more a utopia than anywhere else on the planet. Twice on trips to the Big Island of Hawaii, we have been burgled. In one case, someone broke into our hotel room while we were at dinner. We came back to a ransacked room and a knife stuck into the middle of the bed. That sort of thing has a way of putting a damper on your holiday and convincing you that it’s never a good idea to put your guard down fully.

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