Public computers are a sort of pit stop, rest house, and safe haven for an assortment of viruses (Check Symptoms of Computer Virus), bugs, malware and spyware like keyloggers and PC monitoring software that may cause you more harm than you would like to think. Just by using public computers which are open to so much risk you may be putting your email and social networking site credentials, your basic online identity, up for some major grabs by pretty much anyone.
And there is no denying that we have all used public computers at one time or the other, hardly giving a thought to the spying via keylogger or web tracking that could take place as a result of it. Computers at libraries, airport lounges, malls and coffee shops all are capable of becoming nightmares for you if you don’t take some steps to ensure your online safety.
In order to keep your entire vital information safe (work, financial, medical, etc.) follow these simple steps:
1. Never ever save your login credentials be it for any website. So make sure you disable the save username and password features. Further, even if you are in a hurry, never ever just close the window or the tab you are using. Logout so that the homepage appears without your username in the bar. Only then can you be sure that you have successfully cut off connection with your account.
2. While on a public computer, do not walk away from it or leave it even for an instant without wrapping up all your work on it. Though you should avoid it, make sure even if you have to be away from the system for a moment, you get up after closing windows that may display any personal content, including pictures and videos.
3. Whenever in a public place, and this is for using your own device too, make sure you don’t have a lot of people around you or someone discreetly watching you as you enter some sensitive data. And don’t be too lax on this; you never know who may be snooping and actually collecting user information from such places. After all, public places that offer online access have their own groupies and regular visitors.
4. Use the public system as a temporary place or only in emergencies. This means getting rid of any traces you may have left on the system. Delete history as well as the temporary internet files.
5. Be aware of the public WiFi that you are using. Surf the internet through secure connections, which means using HTTPS for browsing and enabling SSL for whatever applications you use. And most importantly, something that users often forget is even an option, if you are not using internet then turn the WiFi off.
6. Finally, avoid actually using public computers for private work, which means abstaining from typing in any sensitive information such as your bank account number, PIN number, or even social security number. Just by typing these things, without actually entering them into the field, a keylogger can pick up on this sensitive information and then relay it remotely for unseen individuals to misuse.
So keep these tips in mind and hopefully you’ll never find yourself in trouble because you used a public computer.
This article is written by Natalia David. She is a blogger by profession an author significantly contributes towards mobistealth computer monitoring software and mobistealth keylogger. If you want to know more about Natalia you can follow her on twitter @NataliaDavid4. If you wish to write for HBB, kindly check this.
Natalie ,i will never use these public computers.i would end with someone writing a status on my FB
May I add. Check the back of the computer because there may be a physical keylogger there. It usually looks like a USB flash drive. It collects the keys you enter on the keyboard.
I was a victim of it in the early 00’s.
Hi Natty,
That indeed is a very good article worth sharing. We do need to access public computers quite often, and more often find ourselves victims of hackers. As you already mentioned, forgetting to delete the login credentials is the most common mistake most of us make, leaving alone erasing history and temp files.
Talking about virus attack, I would like to add, external hard drives like data transfer cards, pendrives etc. are quite vulnerable agents that can get affected when used on public computers. So, scanning before using the same would be an essential step.
Good tips, Natalie. As much as possible I try to stay away from using public computers, but when I can’t avoid, I try to clear the cache right after I am done.
Yeah i agree with you.This is really a way to manage your content and keeping it safe.I first used to be on public computers but i always got my data corrupted with viruses.I am really looking to use this way.
Is there any trick to know if there are key loggers installed in the pc? Because most of the key loggers are hidden and if we need to use our login credentials in some emergencies then it would be very risky in public internet cafes.
These are the tips everyone should know because when you go to a public computer then you should be knowing the fact that you are not safe. Knowing these tips can save you from getting hack.
nice information @natty thanks sharing this 🙂
No doubt that by using internet virus always attack on your computer, If you want to kill them so should install virus killer software on your computer, I m also using virus killer so safe my computer. I m impress your that great post and thanks for share with us……. thanks again.
Public computers are not safe and so I believe that we should install a new browser first, then surf and then uninstall it. Again we should also use onscreen keyboard to enter the passwords and along it we should not ask the browser to remember the login details…
Practically difficult for all ,