Firewall
I can never stress it enough; you must have a firewall enabled at all times.  It is what will prevent 90% of your issues.  No matter what form of connection you are using, it could be the wired hotel connection or the wireless at the airport.  You must use some sort of firewall.  At the least if you are using the windows integrated firewall you will protect your self from inbound connections.  If you are interested in an additional layer of security you can use a third party firewall. Comodo makes an impressive free firewall that will also allow you to monitor outbound connections.  Another common issue I find is users who either tether there cell phone to their laptop or use a WWAN card forget that this connection is the same as being connected to a hotel wireless connection.  Remember no matter what you are doing you should have the firewall enabled.

File Encryption
If you are on the road, keep your files encrypted.  It protects your information if the laptop is ever lost.  If encrypting and decrypting files constantly is an issue you can easily use PGP Enterprise’s Secure Disk function.  It will create a virtual encrypted disk that is presented to windows as a local disk drive.  The drive is actually a file that contains all of your documents that you save within the virtual drive.

Whole Disk Encryption
If a basic encryption of your files is not enough or your laptop contains sensitive settings such as VPN connection profiles, I recommend encrypting the entire disk drive. There are a number of software packagesthat can perform this function.  A very comprehensive list including a feature comparison can be found here. Full Disk Encryption

Patches
You must keep your system up to date on the latest security patches, especially when moving your laptop between access points.  A desktop PC will never come into contact with the number of different devices that your laptop will.  Every Friday night run windows update and upgrade to the latest security releases.

About the Author
Blake Wiedman has been in the technology industry for 10 years. Serving in the United States Air force and working as a security assessor for the banking and financial industry. Blake is currently working as the Head of Technology Infrastructure for a financial firm.
You can contact Blake at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it