Today post is a friendly reminder on how to play safe as you hop from one public location to another using the Internet. Recently, I have a friend who told me that he used a public computer, using his passwords to check his various accounts from different web services. I was shocked and gave him an advice to change all of his accounts’ passwords when he has the earliest chance. Also, he must change his email’s password right away!!! Why? When someone could guess or sniff your email’s password correctly, and by chance most of your Internet web services’ accounts are using that very email to retrieve lost passwords — the evil doers could basically use the lost password option from various web services such as Facebook and would be able to change your web services’ passwords. Strong password is a must!
Also my friend told me that he wants to use his flash drive on public computer. I also told him not to do that unless he has a spare flash drive with no important information and solely reserving that spare flash drive for public use, or else he risks of spreading computer viruses and worms onto his personal computers. So folks, do not use the same flash drive on everything! Use clean one on personal and work computers, and use the suspicious flash drive on public computers.
When my friend isn’t lazy, he likes to carry his small laptop around and use the public Internet connection for his various needs. As you all know how unsecured public Internet connection is since most public areas use wireless connection without a secured authentication protocol (public network that allows everyone to use the Internet without requiring a secret key). I’m unsure how hard for one to contrive and carry out the “man in the middle attack” in the old days, but nowadays, correct me if I’m wrong, I’m pretty sure there are tools out there for evil doers to download > click > click > boom > and he/she is now officially intercepting your wireless Internet connection (as if wiretapping for telephone). “Man in the middle attack” could allow evil doers to do more than just sniffing for plain texts packages (information in plain texts that got transfer from you to legit web services), because he or she could modify your packages in whatever way he or she wants. This is why my friend should also use some type of tunneling when accessing important data, but the best advice is not to access anything that is important while you’re out in the public (only on a secured network from home or at work).
Another easy one that you could easily overlook when using your computer in the public is to allow others to glance at your computer freely! I know, I’m pretty paranoid about security, but don’t you think that we should be safe than sorry? Prevention is always best! Allowing others to see what you’re doing freely in public when you’re on a computer is almost as good as being social engineered by a hacker, but in this case anyone could do it if he/she wishes without the social engineering skill of hackers (more like crackers). I advice you to get a monitor privacy filter for your specific laptop, and so only you who sits directly in front of your laptop’s monitor can see the information. Also, it’s best to sit in the corner where your back faces the walls so no one could sit behind you or spy on you from behind the clear glass which is a common setup for various coffee shops.
Those tips are on the top of my head today! I had to thank a friend of mine (he wants to be anonymous and so no name here to be listed) since his questions pose me to think greatly about how unsecured we are when we use computers in public places; this post sprung to life due to my friend’s curiosity. The next time you use your computer in public places, make sure to apply safety tips from here and from other well known security websites (ask yourself the tips have merits or not before applying such tips since you only have yourself to blame when walls cave in around you).
