Safety in Cybercafes

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You must have visited cybercafés for various tasks, be it downloading, editing etc. But beneath the work you do in those public computer lies huge set of security issues. An intended person can gain almost many of your personal information like login ID, password, bank PIN code etc. through a public computer from the history of your website visit. If you have transferred a document from your personal computer to a public computer for editing or uploading purpose then someone can gain your personal information from those documents too.

The threat in using a computer in cybercafé comes from keyloggers.  Keyloggers can trace whatever you type in your keyword by means of a software or hardware. For more on keylogger read my earlier post here.  Your web history in a browser or the log files created in your session of using the computer can be beneficial in many way to those who are looking for it.

Here I come up with some simple steps you can follow to be safe on a public computer.

1.    Make sure that you visit a Cybercafé which has a good population of people going in it. This will make your data a drop among the huge ocean of many data getting stored in it thus making it difficult for criminals to break into a specific user data.

2.      Use a cybercafé which has its computers in separate closed cubicles. This prevents others from shoulder surfing your personal information and prevents one from seeing whatever you have typed in your keyboard.

3.    Have a handy USB drive. You can install the portable version of a browser in your USB drive. Portable browser runs from the USB drive and has no relation with the default browser in the computer.  This ensures that your online activity is not stored in the public computer since you have not used the browser installed on the PC. Click here to learn and get a portable version of Firefox

  

4.     Keep an executable file of Free Commander. It can be found here. Free commander is like a windows manager which gives a detailed layout of the file management of the computer system. The file you want to work with can be opened from Free Commander Window. Most importantly you need to delete the file after you have finished working with it. Take a copy of the file to your pen drive. Next, go to ‘File’ option in FC window then Click ‘Wipe’. This will erase the file from the public computer permanently. Normally deleting and wiping from Free Commander has a difference.  Files deleted from delete option of windows (read OS) can still be recovered by software like Recuva etc. but wiping it from FC makes it unrecoverable. This is achieved by rewriting the memory location of where the file was after it has been deleted. ‘Eraser’ is a software which has been found to do this task more prominently then Free Commander (FC). Eraser can be found here.

5.    If you are following step 3 or even if you’re not doing so, be sure that you use virtual keyboard to type in email, username and password. Don’t stroke the keys on your physical keyboard to input sensitive information. For Windows user, Virtual keyboard can be found at Start-All Programs-Accessories-Ease of Access-On Screen Keyboard. This step can help you in a long way in keeping keyloggers away from your personal information. 

Following the above steps can be beneficial but one need to understand that a person who would want to steal your personal information would target you both socially and technically. Be sure not to divulge any personal information over the phone to any one, not even to the person who introduces you to be your banking employee  or an employee of a website. Be sure that the website you're visiting is really that website because it may be a copy image of the genuine website, made especially for you to reveal personal information. Listen your instincts. Safe Tasking!!

Any queries?? Write to rishiraj.in@gmail.com or comment below.