by Mitz Pantic from Tips4pc.com
Top 10 Tips for Safely Using Your PC in Public
In an era where computer and its usage go hand in hand with our day to day work, no one can be disassociated with the world of technology. The world is no more separated by the boundaries but rather has become a closer place to live in, a “global village”. However, this technology comes with a bane just as it is considered as a boon for a large cause. The increase in cases of cyber crimes is just an example of it. Very often we have to use public computers, be it in laboratories or in cyber cafés. But we sometimes are a bit callous in our attitude and which ultimately harms us and our privacy at large. Thus it is very important for us to take utmost precaution while working on public computers. A few of them are enumerated as below:
#1 Select A Less Interrupted Computer
The first thing we should have in mind is that we should choose a computer that is interrupted not very often. Many a times when we are sitting at a place where it is very easy for people standing nearby to peep at our screens, we should avoid entering our passwords or other secured contents. No matter how uninterested the person nearby might seem, we should always have our precaution at hand. Thus we should always prefer a seat which is in the corner or at least well protected from general view.
#2 Use Portable Software or Live CD
It is always advisable to carry portable software in the USB or even a Live CD comes in handy wherever it’s possible. This helps in surfing in our own environment and thereby gives protection from the common computer browsers. A few tools in this regard can be as MojoPac, Portable Firefox, Portable IM solution like Miranda or Pidgin or few web Messengers like Yahoo Messenger, Meebo, Google Talk. Live CDs like Ubuntu or Knoppix can also be very useful. Though this software might be not very user friendly but surely these are secure enough.
#3 Delete Your Downloaded Files
It is very common for the users to download or create files and folders on the computers but we very often forget to delete such files and folders and leave them on the computer itself which can be accessed by other users. Thus the third point to be kept in mind is that we should always delete the files and folders that we have created or downloaded from the hard disk. In order to make it more secured and be totally sure that no one can access such files or folders we can use software like Ultrashredder, which is portable too.
Tips Continued Here
This excerpt appears with permission from Tips4PC.com.
