Comments on: Don’t Access Private Information from Public Computers

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:15:28 +0000

I am the Director of a public library. All of our public computers are on a secure network and are set up to totally refresh and reboot after each use. This means all files and documents other than the program files are wiped out, all caches and browsing history cleared, etc. We use a computer access management system that requires that you log in with a library card and allows a defined session length. The refreshing and rebooting process takes place after each session or after the computer has been unused for a few minutes. The only risk would be if you were in the midst of a session, walked away from the computer, and someone else slipped in and managed to capture your information. We also check for viruses, spyware, etc. using very powerful systems. We are probably more secure than many home computers!

Librarians take great pride in protecting the privacy of our patrons, and this extends to their online privacy! I woudn’t vouch for coffee shops, internet cafes, etc though!

By: john

john — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:45:15 +0000

Unfortunately, unless she used encryption, all of the information she entered was still easily available to anyone sniffing that network. To avoid this, you need to have some kind of encrypted connection to a secure network, and surf from there. Commonly, it is a VPN connection to your home network. Of course, in this case that wouldn’t have worked for you. There are some companies that will be the secure network for you, for a small fee. On the other hand you have to trust that they won’t do nasty things with your data.

By: Posco

Posco — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:38:12 +0000

I've got a pretty good enforcement system for this policy: I use Password Safe to manage (and pseudo-randomly generate) my passwords for critical accounts such as banks and credit cards... The trick: I only have it installed at home, which means I can't login to those sites unless I'm at home. Well, I could ssh into my home computer and retrieve the password database, but that's more trouble than it's worth. I still would not trust public wired-Ethernet connections with critical personal information, not to mention public wireless access points.

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:00:15 +0000

My wife works at a public library, in fact, a pretty cool one. BUT, you never want to underestimate the destructive desire or ability of some people using library (or other public) computers. The lengths people will go to just to acquire more online time is astounding. As my wife playfully reminds our family, “Make good choices !

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:15:12 +0000

I have to agree, you never know exactly WHAT has been installed on a public computer. Its as easy as going to downloads.com to get a keystroke logger. Scary.

By: planner

planner — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:00:10 +0000

Most ISPs have in their contracts the right to monitor information going through them. Companies that share connections, maybe some libraries, have the same type of policies. Even if a thief doesn’t get your info there could be more people seeing it than you’d like.

Also, our Verizon FiOS modem/router had problems the first week we had FiOS. They sent another in the mail that arrived 2 days later. I also had some problems with the wiring. When they sent a tech out to fix the wiring he complained that Verizon shouldn’t have sent a modem without going through the field techs (union contract). He also complained that the replacement they sent me was an older, less reliable model (cheap Verizon). At least our FiOS has only been down two times this week, that’s an improvement for us.